"The Duck Yas-Yas-Yas" or "The Duck's Yas Yas Yas" is a

hokum Hokum is a particular song type of American blues music—a humorous song which uses extended analogies or euphemistic terms to make sexual innuendos. This trope goes back to early blues recordings and is used from time to time in modern Ameri ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

- blues song, originally recorded by

James "Stump" Johnson James "Stump" Johnson (January 17, 1902 – December 5, 1969) was an American blues pianist and singer from St. Louis. Biography James "Stump" Johnson was the brother of Jesse Johnson, "a prominent black business man," who around 1909 had moved ...

, but the most well known version was recorded by Oliver Cobb and his Rhythm Kings. The song is perhaps best known for the lyrics:

Background

The song is a "whorehouse tune", "a popular St. Louis party song." The song's title is explained by quoting the lyrics more fully: "Shake your shoulders, shake 'em fast, if you can't shake your shoulders, shake your yas-yas-yas".

Recordings

"The Duck's Yas Yas Yas" was originally recorded in St. Louis by pianist

in late 1928 or January 1929. He recorded the tune at least three times during his career. Blues singer

Tampa Red Hudson Whittaker (born Hudson Woodbridge; January 8, 1903March 19, 1981), known as Tampa Red, was a Chicago blues musician. His distinctive single-string slide guitar style, songwriting and bottleneck technique influenced other Chicago blues gu ...

and

Thomas A. Dorsey Thomas Andrew Dorsey (July 1, 1899 – January 23, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and Evangelism, Christian evangelist influential in the development of early blues and 20th-century gospel music. He penned 3,000 songs, a third of them ...

also recorded a version on May 13, 1929. Oliver Cobb recorded the song on August 16, 1929, before he died suddenly the next year. Eddie Johnson and The Crackerjacks recorded a cover of the song in 1932. In 1939,

Tommy McClennan Tommy McClennan (January 4, 1905 – May 9, 1961) was an American Delta blues singer and guitarist. Life and career McClennan was born in Durant, Mississippi, and grew up in the town. He played and sang blues in a rough, energetic style. H ...

used some of the lyrics in his song " Bottle It Up and Go". It has been covered by The Three Peppers and by King Perry & His Pied Pipers (1951) in a hardly recognizable clean version. The song has also been performed by American folk singer

Dave Van Ronk David Kenneth Ritz Van Ronk (June 30, 1936 – February 10, 2002) was an American folk singer. An important figure in the American folk music revival and New York City's Greenwich Village scene in the 1960s, he was nicknamed the "Mayor of Ma ...

as "Yas Yas Yas" on his album '' Van Ronk Sings'' (1961), but his source was a variant recorded in the Bahamas by Blind Blake & his Royal Victoria Hotel Calypso Band under the name "Yes! Yes! Yes!" (released on Miami's Art Records label in 1951). John Lee Hooker used the first lines of the song in several of his interpretations of "

Bottle Up and Go "Bottle Up and Go" or "Bottle It Up and Go" is a song that is a standard of the blues. Based on earlier songs, Delta bluesman Tommy McClennan recorded "Bottle It Up and Go" in 1939. The song has been interpreted and recorded by numerous artists, ...

Other adaptations

The cartoonist

Robert Crumb Robert Dennis Crumb (; born August 30, 1943) is an American cartoonist and musician who often signs his work R. Crumb. His work displays a nostalgia for American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of contem ...

quoted the song in his comic strip album

Zap Comix ''Zap Comix'' is an underground comix series which was originally part of the youth counterculture of the late 1960s. While a few small-circulation self-published satirical comic books had been printed prior to this, ''Zap'' became the model for ...

, no. 0, in 1967. It is quoted in the first panel of a story called "Ducks Yas Yas". He also recorded the tune in 1972 with his band, the Good Tone Banjo Boys (released on a transparent red vinyl 78 rpm stereo record). "The Duck's Yas-Yas-Ya" is also referenced on Captain Beefheart's album ''

Trout Mask Replica ''Trout Mask Replica'' is the third studio album by the American band Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, released as a double album on June 16, 1969, by Straight Records. The music was composed by Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) and arrange ...

'' (1969), on the track "Old Fart at Play", in which Beefheart sings, "Momma licked 'er lips like a cat, pecked the ground like a rooster, pivoted like a duck", mentioning all three protagonists from the most famous line of the blues song. Christian recording artist

Larry Norman Larry David Norman (April 8, 1947 – February 24, 2008) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, record label owner, and record producer. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of Christian rock music and released more than 100 albu ...

recorded a version of the song on his 1981 album '' Something New Under the Son''. Norman's version changes the tone of the song to that of a somewhat humorous cautionary tale and is renamed as "Watch What You're Doing." Norman took full writing credit for the song in the album's accompanying liner notes. Norman's version opens with the lyrics "Mama killed a chicken, thought it was a duck, she put it on the table with its legs sticking up, Papa broke his glasses, when he fell down drunk, tried to drown the kitty-cat, turned out to be a skunk, ya gotta watch what you're doing."

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion was an American three-piece rock band from New York City, formed in 1991. The group consisted of Judah Bauer on guitar, backing vocals, harmonica and occasional lead vocals, Russell Simins on drums and Jon Spenc ...

quoted the first three lines of the song in "Chicken Dog," on the album '' Now I Got Worry'', sung by Rufus Thomas.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duck's Yas-Yas-Yas, The 1928 songs Jazz songs Blues songs Fictional chickens Hokum blues songs Songwriter unknown