Post 32: 'DO YOUR DUTY'

My ear was caught by the song Do Your Duty. I particularly enjoyed the performances of it on YouTube by that great young band Tuba Skinny.

It was written in 1933 by Wesley 'Sox' Wilson. He and his wife (Leola B. 'Coot' Grant) were vaudeville performers and song writers. It was recorded that year by the great Bessie Smith.

Not sure whether Sox would agree the version below of his tune is absolutely right but this is how it seems to go. It has a 32-bar structure, essentially four sets of 8 bars:

a - a - b - a.

It sounds right in the key of F, so I entered it into my mini-filofax collection in the key of G, because this is helpful to me when playing my Bb cornet.

You can catch a terrific street performance of this song by Tuba Skinny if you
CLICK HERE.