C  C  Rider (A) & (B)
Channel: Stephen Griffith
Date: 2020-08-20

Day 156 and 157 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series

I've redone the (A) version of C.C. Rider because I left out the main verse ("Oh C. C. Rider, now see what you done, done." so today I'm combining text A and B).

Sandburg writes: "John Lomax and I heard this song (A) in Austin, Texas, in an old saloon, The Silver King, operated as a soft drink parlor by a Mexican black, Martinez. After two blacks with guitars had sung  "The Original Blues/' "Franky and Johnny," ''Boll Weevil," and other pieces, Martinez himself  favored us with "C. C. Rider," which may derive from "easy rider." . . .

"The Sunshine Special, a crack railroad train, has crossed Texas every day for many years. ... In the last line of the first  verse the word "blowed" is given long, slow, controlled and powerful, like the whistle of an onrushing overland train on a southwestern prairie; likewise the word "shine" in the last line of the  second verse. . . . Text B is from Gates Thomas and his south Texas songs."

The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang's "b" definition [of "easy rider"], "a woman who is sexually promiscuous or easily seduced", is the one that applies here. (Another definition, interestingly enough, is "guitar.") (from the Traditional Ballad index)