History of the Song: Red Apple Juice
Traditional Old-time and Bluegrass Song; Appalachian Region
OTHER NAMES: Red Rocking Chair; Red Apple Juice; Sugar Baby; Honey Baby; I Ain’t Got No Honey Baby Now;
DATE: 1909 From EC Perrow as "Done All I Can Do" (See Version 11) Early 1900's as "Red Apple Juice" (from Lunsford- 1935). Dock Boggs as “Sugar Baby” 1927.
DONE ALL I CAN DO Earliest collected version E.C. Perrow JOAFL (From Mississippi; negroes; MS. of W. G. Pitts; 1909.) Done all I can do Trying to get along wid you; Gwine to carry you to your mammy pay day.
NOTES: This white blues is found throughout the Southeast and Appalachians. The confusion between the Sugar Babe/Crawdad Song and the Sugar Baby/Red Rocking Chair continues. The Folk Index on-line fails to differentiate and lumps the Sugar Babe/Sugar Baby songs together. Clearly Sugar Babe (Crawdad Song) and Sugar Baby (Red Rocking Chair) are two different songs. The problem is that some Red Rocking Chair songs are named Sugar Babe- such is life!
The origin of the Red Rocking Chair/Red Apple Juice/Sugar Baby songs I am referencing here may be traced back to Child No. 76 “The Lass of Roch Royal.” In Scottish Ballads by Robert Cambers 1829 p. 91 the forsaken Lass asks Love Gregory:
Oh who will shoe my bonny foot? And who will glove my hand?
And who will lace my middle jimp Wi’ a new made London band?
Compare to the standard American lyrics found in many “True Lovers Farewell” songs:
Oh, who will shoe your little feet/ And who will glove your hand
And who will kiss your red rosy cheeks/ When I'm in some far off land
Compare to Doc Boggs’ “Sugar Baby” on Brunswick 118 in 1927:
Who'll rock the cradle, And who'll sing the song?
Who'll rock the cradle when I'm gone? Who'll rock the cradle when I'm gone?
The question (posed originally by “The Lass of Roch Royal”) is answered:
You'll rock the cradle, And I'll sing the song.
You'll rock the cradle when I'm gone, You'll rock the cradle when I'm gone.
Bogg's 1927 version features "Hub Mahaffey on guitar. John Boggs, Dock's oldest brother, taught him this and Dock kept his brother's tuning. The song is fairly common in the Southern mountains and may derive from the old ballad, The Lass-of Roch Royal (Child 76), with which it shares the verse "Who'll rock the cradle?/Who'll sing the song?/Who'll call you honey/When I'm gone?" Since the two songs share no other common elements they are, at best, distant relations. Both Frank Profitt and Clarence Ashley sang songs close in word and tune to Dock's." from song notes.
The use of floating verses and the lack of a theme make the lyrics of Red Rocking Chair/Red Apple Juice/Sugar Baby/Honey Baby songs difficult to understand. The song is a white blues about the difficulties of the male singer’s lover. John Garst once commented that he thought the “Live in the shade, give her every dime I made;” referred to prostitution. The line “Got no use for the red rockin' chair/ red apple juice” is a rejection of the singer’s lover and “red apple juice” is a form of sexual symbolism. To keep the rejection of the lover consistent it would seem the following verse should be:
You'll rock the cradle, And I'll sing the song.
You'll rock the cradle when I’m gone, You'll rock the cradle when I’m gone.
With these lyrics the rejection of the singer’s lover is complete. The singer wants to take her back to her Mama next payday, doesn’t want her “red apple juice” or to rock in her “red rocking chair.” He’s “got no honey baby now, got no honey baby now.”
Red Apple Juice (Painting Lyrics)
Ain't got no use for your red apple juice,
Ain't got no honey baby now,
Ain't got no honey baby now.
Who'll rock the cradle and who'll sing the song,
Who'll rock the cradle when I’m gone,
Who'll rock the cradle when I’m gone.
Ain't got no use for your red rocking chair,
Ain't got no honey baby there,
Ain't got no honey baby there.
Gave her all I made then I laid her in the shade,
What more can a poor boy do?
What more can a poor boy do?
RED APPLE JUICE Capo 2 (key of D major) Performance lyrics
Richard Matteson C 2001 Arranged from traditional lyrics
[F]Ain't got no [C]use, [C]
[F]Ain't got no [C]use for your [C]red apple [Am]juice.
[C]Ain't got no honey baby [Am]now,
[C]Ain't got no [G]honey baby [C]now. [C]
Who’ll rock the cradle,
Who’ll rock the cradle, who'll sing this song?
Who’ll rock the cradle when I’m gone?
Who’ll rock the cradle when I’m gone?
You'll rock the cradle,
You'll rock the cradle, and I'll sing the song.
You'll rock the cradle when I'm gone,
You'll rock the cradle when I'm gone.
Ain't got no use,
Ain't got no use for your red rockin' chair.
Ain't got no honey baby there,
Ain't got no honey baby there.
I gave her all I made,
I gave her all I made, and I laid her in the shade.
What more can a poor boy do?
What more can a poor boy do?
Ain't got no use,
Ain't got no use for your red apple juice.
Ain't got no honey baby now,
Ain't got no honey baby now.