“I Got Mine” is a party song that has been rattling around America’s alleys and riverfronts, backyards and backrooms for well over a century.
According to Terry SoRelle’s wonderful online resource “Terry’s Song,” the tune was originally published as sheet music by John Queen and Charlie Cartwell in 1902, right at the midpoint of the ragtime rage, and was recorded on an Edison cylinder by Arthur Collins, who dubbed himself “The King of the Ragtime Singers.”
The song’s narrator -- with that engaging, intoxicating blend of street-wise bravado and self-deprecating humor — could easily have been the inspiration for literary characters from Porgy and Bess’s Sportin’ Life to Alex Haley’s Chicken George.
No wonder “I Got Mine” has been tossed back and forth from white country bands like Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers to African American bluesmen like Frank Stokes, who is considered by many musicologists to be the father of the Memphis blues guitar style.
Hands down, though, our favorite rendition of “I Got Mine” is Pink Anderson’s rendition. A great blues man who started out in the medicine show business in 1914 and kept playing well into the 1960s, Anderson did a classic version of the song on his 1962 recording for the Bluesville label called “Medicine Show Man.”
Oh, and we can’t just glide past Pink without a footnote for you progressive rock fans. Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd once rather famously confirmed that he created his band's name by juxtaposing the first names of Pink Anderson and North Carolina bluesman Floyd Council.
Our Take on the Tune
The Flood learned its version of “I Got Mine” from the great Jim Kweskin Jug Band and its 1966 “Relax Your Mind” album for Vanguard.
At last night’s Flood rehearsal, we were doing just that, thank you very much. Here we’ve got Randy Hamilton killing it on the harmonies and double dips of scintillating solos by Sam St. Clair and Danny Cox. Click here to take a listen!
As Jim Kweskin says, “I got mine — hope you got yours!”
By the Way
A 1982 Flood rendition of the tune is on the band’s official(ish) bootleg album, Hip Boots: The Flooded Basement Tape. Click here to read all about it.
Meanwhile, if you’d like to get even more hokum in your day, check out the Hokum Channel on our free Radio Floodango music streaming feature. It’s wall-to-wall jug band tunes, playing ‘til you can’t take it no more!
In Other Business…
Lately we’ve had a bunch of new folks coming on board to read this newsletter. Thanks, people! You make our hearts sing with all the kind emails. We’re hoping the newsletter becomes a kind of sharing / gathering place for us, so have fun with it.
Meanwhile, we're thinking that new readers maybe could use some help browsing, searching and reading the archives, posting comments and replies and sharing articles, so we’ve expanded our help file to cover these things.
Click here to give it a look, then scroll the resulting page to the section headlined, “If You’re New to the Newsletter…”
Enjoy, and if you have any corrections, suggestions or questions, drop us a line.
What a nice tune to enjoy with my morning coffee! We’ve enjoyed listening to the Flood over the years and watching it evolve as members came and went. As you noted, Randy’s harmony was great, as were Sam and Dan’s solos. I’m awake now! Thanks!
Tasty, classic tune with a great vocal performance on top of the Flood’s always-enjoyable playing. As an aficionado of roots and Americana music, I always enjoy these well put together history lessons and performances. Great photos too!