“Sugar Babe” by Mance Lipscomb was made in 1960. This song is definitely in the blues style of the 60s . All of the information I have found about Mance is very little but all saying the same thing. Every website says that he was a farmer that would play music on the weekends. He would call himself a “Songster” rather than a blues artist. A songster is “a musician who is both performer and inventor and harks back to the time when every Southern town had its songster, a man who was virtually in charge of the community’s social life.” I did find information on Mance’s father. Mance’s father was born and raised in Alabama. I could not find any information about his mother. His father would play the fiddle on Saturdays. Mance learned guitar by the age of 15 and would play with his father. Mance was discovered when Chris Strachwitz and Mack McCormick traveled through Navaosta. They went to whoever they found and asked who the best singer was. And they all said, Mance. He was discovered in his late 60s and traveled around the United States, after releasing a few albums.
Since Mance was discovered in his 60s, I think the song is more of a product of things Mance knew. I think this song could be related to in the 60s but I feel like most people would not know what he was talking. For example, he says “Whupped my baby till she Buzzard Lope!”. When I listened to the song, I had no idea what he was talking about so I looked it up. Buzzard Lope is a West African dance that was created in the 1890s. The information I found said the dance was brought over during the slave trade and was popular in Georgia. Since the dance was brought over from Africa, it would make since that there is some Texan history related to it. Navaosta is close to the shore. With that being said, it was a big cotton farming area and had slaves to work. Something else Mance talked about was “whupped”. Which is his way of saying whipped. I think growing up where he did, he saw what the slave owners and slaves would do throughout the day. I think that did influence his songs because it was how he grew up.
Lyrics:
(spoken: It was the first’un I learnt)
Sugar babe, I’m tired of you
Ain’t your honey but the way you do
Sugar babe, it’s all over now
All I want my babe to do
Make five dollars and give me two
Sugar babe, it’s all over now
Went downtown and bought me a rope
Whupped my baby till she Buzzard Lope1
Sugar babe, it’s all over now
Sugar babe, what’s the matter with you?
You don’t treat me like you used to do
Sugar babe, it’s all over now
Went to town and bought me a line
Whupped my baby till she changed her mind
Sugar babe, sugar babe, it’s all over now
Sugar babe, I’m tired of you
Ain’t your honey but the way you do
Sugar babe, it’s all over now
I am having a hard time deciding what subculture Mance belongs to. I am determined to find more information and decide. This assignment for me was more of a guess. This is because I had a hard time finding information about “Sugar Babe” so I had to make some thoughts on my own.
Works Cited
Dingus, Anne. “Mance Lipscomb.” Texas Monthly, 21 Jan. 2013, www.texasmonthly.com/articles/mance-lipscomb/.
“Lipscomb, Mance.” TSHA, 1 Mar. 1995, www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/lipscomb-mance.
“Mance Lipscomb Called Himself A Songster, But He Sure Could Sing the Blues.” KUNC, 11 July 2015, www.kunc.org/music/2015-07-11/mance-lipscomb-called-himself-a-songster-but-he-sure-could-sing-the-blues.
“Mance Lipscomb – Sugar Babe.” Genius, genius.com/Mance-lipscomb-sugar-babe-lyrics.
“Texas Sharecropper and Songster.” Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, folkways.si.edu/mance-lipscomb/texas-sharecropper-and-songster/blues/music/album/smithsonian.
“Waiting for the Redirectiron…” Waiting for the Redirectiron.., easttexashistory.org/items/show/349.
