Annotation:Rattlesnake Daddy

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RATTLESNAKE DADDY. Old-Time, Breakdown. Played by the Mississippi band Ming’s Pep Steppers, led by fiddler Hoyt Ming (Choctaw County, Mississippi). Ming’s son, Hoyt B. Ming, remembered that the band was asked to audition for a small part in the 1975 film Ode to Billy Joe:

In the movie, we played ‘Rattlesnake Daddy’ so it could be copyrighted. When Dad heard the movie was going to have nudity, he was very upset. He told me that he prayed they would not show his scene. Dad was a Steward in the Methodist Church, did not drink, and did not curse. He was very straight. They cut out our scenes but left the tune. Anyway, not only did the movie have partial nudity, but the nudity was shown with our tune as background music. I saw the movie and never told him. It seems that no one else told him as he never mentioned it as long as he lived. ... (Old Time Herald, Spring 2001; vol.7, No. 7, p. 3).

Source for notated version:

Printed sources:

Recorded sources: Homestead Records 103, Hoyt "Floyd" Ming and His Pep-Steppers - "New Hot Times" (1975).