Old Dan Tucker: About the Song

“Old Dan Tucker” was written for the minstrel stage by one of the first and greatest of America’s blackface minstrels, Daniel Decatur Emmett.

Lyrics

chorus:
So get out the way!
Get out the way!
Get out the way Old Dan Tucker
You’re too late to come to supper

verses:
I came to town the other night
I heard the noise and saw the fight
The watchman was a-runnin’ round
Cryin’ Old Dan Tucker’s come to town

Tucker is a nice old man
He used to ride our darby ram
He sent him whizzin’ down the hill
If he hadn’t got up he’d lay there still

Here’s my razor in good order
Magnum bonum – I just bought her
Sheep shell oats, Tucker shell corn
I’ll shave you soon as the water gets warm

Old Dan Tucker and I got drunk
He fell in the fire and kicked up a chunk
The charcoal got inside his shoe
Lord bless you honey how the ashes flew

Down the road foremost the stump
Master made me work the pump
I pumped so hard I broke the sucker
There was work for Old Dan Tucker

I went to town to buy some goods
I lost myself in a piece of woods
The night was dark I had to suffer
It froze the heel of Daniel Tucker

Tucker was a hardened sinner
He never said his grace at dinner
The old sow squealed, the pigs did squall
He hole hog with the tail and all