#71 / Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby?

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I am not really sure I ever heard that song before right now: "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby?" Somehow, though, that song has just come to mind. It may be, at some deep level, down where the music penetrates, I am pondering the results of our local elections, here in Santa Cruz County, and especially in the City of Santa Cruz. It may also be that I am worrying myself ahead, about the national elections still to come, in November of this year. 

If you want to review the lyrics, you can see them printed out, below, and if you click on that link to the title, above, or hit that arrow in the image at the top of this blog posting, you can listen to  Louis Jordan sing the song. 

I find, from Wikipedia, that "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby?" was first recorded in 1943, a couple of months before I was even born. It is not impossible that my parents may have been singing that song around my crib. Somehow, the words of the title, in particular, have stuck with me, right from the start: "Is you is, or is you ain't," my baby?" 

Why would those lyrics come to mind right now, I ask myself - right out of nowhere, too. 

Well, in politics, just as in love, nothing can be taken for granted. As I review the lyrics, it strikes me that while the singer feels that love might be slipping away, and that the singer's "baby" might be tending to the "Ain't" side, the remedy isn't just to wait around, to get the answer to the question that is now preoccupying the singer's mind. 

In the song, it seems, the answer to the question may well depend on what the singer does. That's the way I'm reading it. At the very least, the singer is going to pursue that question directly. The singer is going to track down and confront the singer's beloved. 

That sounds like good advice to me.

In both politics and love, you're not going to get the answer you want by staying home and waiting for a message. You had better move your bones and press your fate from door to door and gate to gate!

oooOOOooo

Is You or Is You Ain't My Baby
Song by Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five

I gotta a girl who's always late
Anytime we have a date
But I love her
Yes I love her
I'm gonna walk up to her gate
And see if I can get it straight
'Cause I want her
I'm gonna ask her
Is you is, or is you ain't, my baby
The way you're acting lately makes me doubt
You is still my baby, baby
Seems my flame in your heart's done gone out
A woman is a creature
That has always been strange
Just when you're sure of one you find
She's gone and made a change
Is you is, or is you ain't my baby
Maybe baby's found somebody new
Or is my baby still my baby true

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https://youtu.be/m7M4thNT_EY?si=evJBsbLneL43COL0