Lastest revision - January 3, 2022
This pancocojams post showcases four examples of the Old Time Music song "Raise A Ruckus Tonight". The word "ruckus" is usually pronounced "roo-kus" in these songs.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the unknown composers of this song. Thanks to Thomas W. Talley for collecting this song and others. Thanks to these featured vocalists who recorded this song. And thanks to the publishers of these sound files on YouTube.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT THIS SONG
"Raise a Rukcus Tonight" is included in African American scholar & folk music collector Thomas W. Talley's now classic 1922 collection of African American secular folk songs Negro Folk Rhymes: Wise And Other Wise. That song has been adapted and recorded by numerous performers and serves as the source for a number of songs, including the children's playground rhyme "Ten [Three] Little Angels [Devils] Dressed In White".
According to https://secondhandsongs.com/performance/1021323 , the "First recording and first release by Norfolk Jazz Quartette (April 1923 / June 1923)". That link includes a sound file of that record whose title is given as "Raise R.U.K.U.S. Tonight". The lyrics for that version are different than the lyrics given in Talley's Negro Folk Son" collection.
FEATURED TEXT EXAMPLES OF "RAISE A RUCKUS TONIGHT"
Example #1:
Here's a comment that I wrote September 2004 on this Mudcat folk music forum discussion thread http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=73087 Lyr Add: Raise A Ruckus Tonight
This edited comment includes a minor change in how I'm writing what is now called "the n word". It also includes, a few minor typographical corrections, a few word changes, and an added hyperlink.
"Raise a Ruckus is an opened ended dance song dating from the 19th century and attributed to Black Americans in the United States South. The song includes various floating verses that can be found in a number of other secular slave songs.
Here is a version of Raise A "Ruckus Tonight" from Thomas W. Talley's Negro Folk Rhymes, originally published in 1922, p. 90.
electronic book http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27195/27195-h/27195-h.htm
I am using N----rs for the group referent since that referent is probably even less politically correct now than it was in 1922. Otherwise, this is as Talley presented it.
Two liddle N----rs all dressed in white,
Raise a rucus to-night)
Want to get to Heaben on de tail of a kite.
(Raise a rucus to-night)
De kite string broke; dem N----rs fell;
(Raise a rucus to-night)
Wha dem N----rs go, I hain't gwineter tell.
(Raise a rucus to-night)
A N----r an' a w'ite man a playin' seven up;
(Raise a rucus to-night)
De N----r beat de w'te man, but 'e's skeered to pick it up.
(Raise a rucus to-night)
Dat N----r grabbed de money, an' de w'te man fell
(Raise a rucus to-night)
How de N----r run, I'se not gwinter tell.
(Raise a rucus to-night)
Look here, N----r! Let me tell you a naked fac':
(Raise a rucus to-night.)
You mought a been cullud widout bein' dat black;
(Raise a rucus to-night)
Dem 'ar feet look lak youse sh' walkin; back'
(Raise a rucus to-night)
An' yo' ha'r, it look lak a chyarpet tack.
(Raise a rucus to-night)
CHORUS: Oh come 'long chilluns, come 'long
W'le dat moon are shinin' bright
Let's git on board, an' float down de river,
An' raise a rucus to-night.
-end of quote-
The first verse of "Raise A Ruckus Tonight" is the source for the African American children's rhyme "Ten Little Angels" (Ten little angels dressed in white/tryin' to get to heaven by the tail of a kite/but the kite string broke/and one of them fell/instead of going to heaven she when to __/nine little angels etc.). I also believe that the "Ten Little Angels" rhyme is the direct source of the military cadence. "Pebbles and Bam Bam".
These floating verses are probably more suitable for historical/anthropological folk study than present day singing, particularly the last verse of "rips" (insults). At the very least, it should be stated that this dance song was not meant to be performed for audiences other than some African Americans who used that word as a self-referent.
The avoidance of the word "hell" in the 'Ten Little Angels" children's rhyme reminds me of the children's folk rhyme "Miss Susie had a Steamboat" in which the "hell is changed to "Hello, operator"...
Also, with regard to the use of "d" in place of "th" I would like to call your attention to this excerpt from Lorenzo D. Turner's "Problems Confronting The Investigator Of Gullah", p. 132 in Mother Wit From The Laughing Barrel, edited by Alan Dundes (Prentice-Hall, 1973)
"Mr. Cleanth Brooks, in his monograph entitled 'The Relation of the Alabama-Georgia Dialect to the Provincial Dialects of Great Britain' (Baton Rouge, 1835), reveals some confusion in his discussion of the Negro's substitution of initial d for th in such words as this, that, them, then, these, etc. Assuming that all the peculiarities of the Negro's pronunciation stem from the British dialect of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, he devotes several pages (75-91, to be exact) to an attempt to show that the use of initial d for th in such words occurred in certain British dialects early enough for the white settlers in Alabama and Georgia to pass it on to the Negroes. He obviously did not realize that in none of the West African languages spoken by the Negroes who were coming to Georgia direct from Africa until practically the beginning of the Civil War does the th sound occur.... Moreover, when the native West African today first encounters the "th" sounds, whether in the United States, the Caribbean, West Africa, or elsewhere, he substitutes for them "d" and "t" with which he is thoroughly familiar and which he considers closer to the English th than any of the other sounds of his language. This is true whether he is literate or illiterate."...
-end of quote-
A few more comments:
"Seven up" mentioned in this song is a card game. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Up_(game)
The last verse in this song is made up of "diss" (insults) about a Black person's dark skin color and about a Black person's hair texture.
****
Example #2: Gus Cannon - Gonna Raise a Ruckus Tonight
AlvisaMinidoruv, Published on Feb 16, 2013
Do I need to say anything? More from Cannon's Stax record. Pictures of euchre players, a girl with a banjo, and then a bunch of girls with banjos.
Gus Cannon: banjo, vocals
Will Shade: jug, vocals
Milton Roby: washboard
-snip-
LYRICS: (Gus Cannon version)
Chorus:
Come along, little chillun, come along,
While the moon is shinin' bright,
I imma git on board, where the river flow
I'm gonna raise a ruckus tonight.
My ol' mistiss promise me,
(Raise a ruckus tonight)
When she died, she'd set me free,
(Raise a ruckus tonight)
Oh she here so long till her head got bald
(Raise a ruckus tonight)
Thought I had to kill her with the white oak maul
(Raise a ruckus tonight.)
Chorus
Raise a ruckus tonight
(Raise a ruckus tonight)
Been so long till her head got bald
(Raise a ruckus tonight)
Raise a ruckus tonight
(Raise a ruckus tonight)
Raise a ruckus tonight
(Raise a ruckus tonight
Bouta git on board, down where the river flow
I'm gonna raise a ruckus tonight.
[instrumental]
Chorus
Well, well come along, little chillun, come along,
While the moon is shinin' bright,
Git on board, where the river flow
I'm gonna raise a ruckus tonight
-snip-
Transcription by Azizi Powell. Italics mean I'm not sure about that word. Additions and corrections are welcome.
****
Example #3: Raise A Ruckus Tonight - Buster Brown - 1962
Georgia born singer, Buster Brown, was a harmonica player who relocated to New York in the mid-1950's and was signed to Fire Records by it's owner, Bobby Robinson. Brown's biggest hit was his 1959 smash, Fannie Mae. Raise A Ruckus Tonight, was released in 1962 on the Fire label and it's one of those records that is so retro in sound that you feel like you're transported to a southern juke joint! -snip-
This sound file replaces one that is no longer available. The lyrics for this song that are given below were included in the summary of that sound file.
LYRICS (as sung by Buster Brown)
Come along, children come along
While the moon is shinin' bright
Get on board, down the river flow
We're gonna raise a ruckus tonight
Ain't no need to be workin' so hard
(Praise the Lord)
I got a gal in my backyard (praise)
(Praise the Lord)
When she killin' chicken
She save me the head
(Praise the Lord)
Worked so much
I been lyin' in the bed (yeah, yeah)
(Praise the Lord)
Oh, come along
Oh children come along
While the moon is shinin' bright
Get on board, down that river flows
We're gonna raise a ruckus tonight
(We're gonna raise a ruckus tonight)
When she killed a chicken
Saved me the piece
(Praise the Lord)
Worked so much
You better throw another piece (yeah, yeah)
(Praise the Lord)
Ain't no need a-me gettin' the blues (praise)
(Praise the Lord)
You swing Sally an I'll swing Sue
(yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
(Praise the Lord)
Ooh, come along
Lord, children come along
While the moon is shinin' bright
Get on board, down the river flow
We're gonna raise a ruckus
(We're gonna raise a ruckus tonight)
Woo!
(Prayer of God)
Woo! (oh yeah)
(Prayer of God)
Woo! (yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah)
(Prayer of God)
Woo!
(Prayer is God)
Oh, come along
Lord, children come along
While the moon is shinin' bright
Get on board, down the river flow
We're gonna raise a ruckus
(We're gonna raise a ruckus tonight)
Sing above me
Ain't gonna sing no mo'
(Prayer of God)
My baby called me
An I got to go (yeah, yeah)
(Prayer of God)
I wonder where could my baby be?
(Prayer of God)
I can't find her, she can't find me
(Prayer of God)
Oh, come along
Lord, children come along
While the moon is shinin' bright
Get on board, down the river flow
We're gonna raise a ruckus
(We're gonna raise a ruckus tonight)
Woo!
(Prayer of God)
(Gonna pray, yeah!)
(Prayer of God)
Woo!
(Prayer of God)
Woo!
(Gonna pray, yeah!)
(Prayer of God)
Woo!
(Prayer of God)
Woo!
(Gonna pray right now)
http://songmeanings.com/songs/view/3530822107858913932/
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
I wonder if the song "Raise A Ruckus Tonight" was at least partly a source for the character "Uncle Ruckus" in the African American comic strip/television series the "Boondocks".
ReplyDeleteSince Uncle Ruckus is a self-hating Black man, he would want to remove himself from the downhome-if not minstrel like -connotations of the "Raise A Ruckus" song. But his name ties him to that part of his heritage.
Click ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Ruckus for more information about Uncle Ruckus. Warning - "the n word" is fully spelled out on that page.