Ida Red

"Ida Red" (Roud 3429) is an American traditional song of unknown origin, made famous in the upbeat 1938 version by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, the primary inspiration for Chuck Berry's first big hit "Maybellene." It is chiefly identified by variations of the chorus:

Ida Red, Ida Red, I'm a plumb fool 'bout Ida Red.

Verses are unrelated, humorous and free form, changing from performance to performance, usually referring to a female character. The earliest recording is one by Fiddlin' Powers & Family (Victor 19434, 1924), which includes vocals. There is also an early well-known instrumental by Dykes Magic City Trio (Brunswick 125, 1927).^[2] Like his father and grandfather, Wills, renowned in parts of Texas for his fiddling before he formed the Texas Playboys, learned this tune in his earliest days of practice.

"Ida Red", the personage, appears in a number of distantly related songs. One, by Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers whose "Shootin' Creek" (Columbia 15286-D, 1928), a version of "Cripple Creek", contains verses from "Ida Red", i.e.:

Ida Red, she's a darned ol' fool,

Tried to put a saddle on a hump-back mule.

Alan Lomax includes another in his collection of "Negro Bad Men" songs titled "Ida Red".^[3] Other than the title, this song is in no way related to the folk song. This song is of a criminal feeling sorry for himself. In every verse he wails to his woman:

Oh, weep! Oh, my Ida!

Several songs use the same tune behind unrelated subject matter. These include "Down The Road" and "Over The Road I'm Bound to Go".