Billy Base

SONG INFORMATION

Origin: Traditional (Southern, early 1900's)
First recording by Honeyboy & Sassafras (1929)
Released on Old Time Music at Clarence Ashley's pt. 2 featuring Doc Watson (1962)

This song evolved from Anglo-American play-party traditions and African-American blues. Workers building levees to prevent the flooding of the Mississippi River in the South may have been among the first to sing it.

LYRICS

You get a line and I’ll get a pole , honey
You get a line and I’ll get a pole babe
You get a line and I’ll get a pole we’ll go down to the crawdad hole honey, sugar baby mine

Sit on the bank til my feet get cold honey
Sit on the bank til my feet get cold babe
Sit on the bank til my feet get cold we’ll go down to the crawdad hole honey, sugar baby mine

Crawdad hole way down to the crawdad hole lets go (clap) x 5

What will you do when the lake goes dry honey
What will you do when the lake goes dry babe
What will you do when the lake goes dry sit right there watch the crawdads die hone, sugar baby mine