Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup (also known as "Pop" Crudup) (August 24, 1905 – Mar… Read Full Bio ↴Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup (also known as "Pop" Crudup) (August 24, 1905 – March 28, 1976) was a delta blues singer and guitarist. He is best known outside blues circles for writing songs later covered by Elvis Presley (and since covered by dozens of other artists), such as "That's All Right Mama", "My Baby Left Me" and "So glad you're mine", and by many claims, "Blue Suede Shoes".

Born in Forest, Mississippi and living and working in throughout the South and Midwest as a migrant worker for a time, he and his family returned to Mississippi in 1926. He sang gospel, then began his career as a blues singer around Clarksdale, Mississippi. He visited Chicago as member of the Harmonizing Four in 1939 and stayed there to work as a solo musician, but barely made a living as a street singer. Record producer Lester Melrose allegedly found him while he was living in a packing crate, introduced him to Tampa Red and signed him to a contract with RCA Victor's Bluebird label.

He recorded with RCA in the late 1940s and with Ace Records, Checker Records and Trumpet Records in the early 1950s and toured throughout the country, specifically Black establishments in the South, with Sonny Boy Williamson II and Elmore James. He also recorded under the names Elmer James and Percy Lee Crudup.

Crudup stopped recording in the 1950s, however, after further battles over royalties. He returned to recording with Fire Records and Delmark Records and touring in the 1960s, sometimes labeled "The Father of Rock and Roll", a title which he accepted with some bemusement. Throughout this time Crudup worked as a laborer to augment the small wages he received as a singer and non-existent royalties. Crudup returned to Mississippi after a dispute with Melrose over royalties, then went into bootlegging, and later moved to Virginia where he had lived and worked as a musician and laborer. In the early 1970's, two local Virginia activists, Celia Santiago and Margaret Carter, both assisted him in attempting to gain Royalties he felt he were due, to little gain.

From the mid 60's Crudup returned to bootlegging and working as an agricultural laborer, chiefly in Virginia, where he lived with his family including three sons and several of his own siblings. On the Eastern Shore of Virginia, while he lived in relative poverty as a field laborer, he occasionally sang and supplied moonshine to a number of drinking establishments, including one called the Dew Drop Inn, in Accomack County for some time prior to his eventual death, due to complications from heart disease and diabetes. (There was some confusion as to his actual date of death because of his use of several names, including those of his siblings.) He passed away in the Nassawadox hospital in Northampton County, Virginia, also on the Eastern Shore in 1976.

Black Pony Blues
Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I got a coal‑black mare
But Lord how that horse can run 
Yes she win every race
Man you don't see how it's done 

I give her three gold teeth
I put earrings in her ears
 There ain't no use a‑worrying

I do swear the stuff is here

  I cut her mane
I put streamline shoes on her feet 
Ain't a horse in the country
I do swear my horse can't beat

  Say she foxtrot and pace
And I rode that horse today
 Yeah when morning comes
She had never broke her gait

  She going to the race track at midnight
And I rode her all night long
 Yeah when morning come
She had never changed her weight

  She's a coal‑black mare
She's got long black curly mane

Well I'll follow that horse
Man in any land

Overall Meaning

Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup's song Black Pony Blues is a song about a coal-black mare that the singer owns. He boasts about how fast and successful she is as a racehorse, stating that she wins every race and nobody can match her speed. The singer goes into detail about the lengths he goes to maintain and care for the horse, including giving her gold teeth and earrings, cutting her mane and putting special shoes on her feet. He expresses no worry about the money he spends on the horse, stating that he knows the investment is worth it. The song also touches on how he rides her all night long to prepare her for a race and how she maintains her weight throughout the night. The song ends with the singer declaring his intention to follow the horse anywhere.

On a deeper level, the song could also be interpreted as an allegory for African Americans during the Great Migration. The horse is a metaphor for the African American people who traveled from the rural South to the urban North in the early 20th century. The singer's pride and investment in the horse represents the pride and value African Americans had in themselves during this time. Similarly, the horse's unparalleled racing ability represents the unique skills and talents that African Americans could bring to Northern cities.

Line by Line Meaning

I got a coal-black mare
I own a horse with black fur

But Lord how that horse can run
My horse is really fast

Yes she win every race
My horse always wins races

Man you don't see how it's done
You don't understand how my horse is able to win

I give her three gold teeth
I put gold teeth in my horse's mouth

I put earrings in her ears
I accessorized my horse with earrings in her ears

There ain't no use a-worrying
No need to worry because everything is fine

I do swear the stuff is here
I promise that everything I'm saying is true

I cut her mane
I trimmed my horse's hair

I put streamline shoes on her feet
I gave my horse special shoes to help her run faster

Ain't a horse in the country
In my opinion, no other horse can compare