ALKA-SELTZER SONG BOOK (1937) Lulu Belle & Scotty, Henry Burr, Hoosier Hot Shots

Sixteen-page pulp paper booklet, 6-/4” x 6-3/4”, with lyrics to 27 songs, including Popular Songs of Heny Burr, Joe Kelly and Hoosier Hot Shots and Favorite Songs of Lulu Belle & Scotty, Uncle Ezra, Maple City Four, Sally Foster and Lucille Long, with photos of all the singers. Songs include I’ll Take You Home Again Kathleen, I Wish I Was in Indiana, Darling Nellie Gray, The Wearing of the Green, Jingle Bells, Polly-Wolly-Doodle, Dixie’s Land, Love’s Old Sweet Song, et al.  Some include music, others only lyrics. The booklet also includes ads for Alka-Seltzer, Dr. Miles Nervine, Aspir-Mint and Dr. Miles Anti-Pain Pills. The booklet is in excellent condition with light corner wear and some writing in pencil on the covers.

A curiosity that may be of interest to followers of Robert Johnson blues lore and mythology is the song Rosedale, Everyone’s Hometown on the Favorite Songs of Uncle Ezra pages. One of the sites promoted as “the crossroads” in stories about Robert Johnson is Rosedale, Mississippi. The Uncle Ezra Rosedale song (written by Jack Frost) begins: “You simply turn to the right at the crossroads . . .” The song was copyrighted by Joe Davis, Inc., in 1936 – the same year Robert Johnson recorded Cross Road Blues. (Of course Johnson didn’t mention Rosedale in his song; that came later when Eric Clapton sang it. See the text of the Rosedale marker at the Mississippi Blues Trail website for more discussion on this.)

-- Jim O'Neal, Co-founder, Living Blues magazine & Research Director, Mississippi Blues Trail  (eBay seller Stackhouse232)