Edited by Azizi Powell
This post provides information about and lyrics for the African American secular folk song "Mule On The Nount".
Two sound files of this song are also showcased in this post.
The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Special thanks to Zora Neale Hurston for her renditions of "Mule On The Mount". Thanks also to the publishers of these examples on YouTube.
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INFORMATION ABOUT THE FOLK SONG "MULE ON THE MOUNT" & LYRIC EXAMPLES
Excerpt #1:
From http://xroads.virginia.edu/%5C~MA01/Grand-Jean/Hurston/LOC/music/mulelyrics.html
"NOTE: The most widely distributed and best known of all Negro work songs. Since folk songs grow by incremental repetition the diversified subject matter that it accumulates as it ages is one of the evidences of its distribution and usage. This has everything in folk life in it. Several stories to say nothing of just lyric matter. It is something like the Odyssey, or the Iliad.
Cap'n got a mule, mule on the Mount called Jerry
Cap'n got a mule, mule on the Mount called Jerry
I can ride, Lawd, Lawd, I can ride.
(He won't come down, Lawd; Lawd, he won't come down, in another version.)
I don't want no cold corn bread and molasses,
I don't want no cold corn bread and molasses,
Gimme beans, Lawd, Lawd, gimme beans.
I don't want no coal-black woman for my regular,
I don't want no coal-black woman for my regular,
She's too low-down, Lawd, Lawd, she's too low-down.
I got a woman, she's got money 'cumulated,
I got a woman, she's got money 'cumulated,
In de bank, Lawd, Lawd, in de bank.
I got a woman she's pretty but she's too bulldozing,
I got a woman she's pretty but she's too bulldozing,
She won't live long, Lawd, Lawd, she won't live long.
Every pay day, pay day I gits a letter,
Every pay day, pay day I gits a letter,
Son come home, Lawd, Lawd, son come home.
If I can just make June, July and August,
If I can just make June, July and August,
I'm going home, Lawd, Lawd, I'm going home.
Don't you hear them, coo-coo birds keep a'hollering,
Don't you hear them, coo-coo birds keep a'hollering,
It's sign of rain, Lawd, Lawd, it's sign of rain.
I got a rain-bow wrapped and tied around my shoulder,
I got a rain-bow wrapped and tied around my shoulder,
It ain't goin' rain, Lawd, Lawd, it ain't goin' rain
-snip-
For the purpose of this post, I've assigned these lyrics as Lyric Example #1.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/10/early-versions-of-cant-you-line-em.html for a pancocojams post about gandy dancers. Here's a portion of one excerpt about "gandy dancers" that is found in that post:
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandy_dancer
"Gandy dancer is a slang term used for early railroad workers who laid and maintained railroad tracks in the years before the work was done by machines.
...most sources refer to gandy dancers as the men who did the difficult physical work of track maintenance under the direction of an overseer.
There are various theories about the derivation of the term, but most refer to the "dancing" movements of the workers using a specially manufactured 5-foot (1.52 m) "lining" bar (which may have come to be called a "gandy") as a lever to keep the tracks in alignment...
Though all gandy dancers sang railroad songs, it may be that black gandy dancers, with a long tradition of using song to coordinate work, were unique in their use of task-related work chants."
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Excerpt #2
From http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=135990
Subject: RE: Origins: Timber Jerry the Mule
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 26 Feb 11 - 06:06 PM
"Well, the song "Jerry" ("Mule on the Mountain") is somewhat older, a work chant. First collected I think by Zora Neale Hurston, who published it in her Mules and Men, 1935, p. 327, as "Mule On De Mount." First vrse:
Cap'n got a mule, mule on the Mount called Jerry (2)
I can ride, Lawd, Lawd, I can ride.
[OR He won't come down, Lawd, Lawd, he won't come down.]
Hurston calls it "The most widely distributed and best known of all Negro work songs." Subsequent collecting has not borne out that verdict, but the song is very widespread all the same, related to "Corn Bread and Molasses," "Coal-Black Woman" and other songs like "I Got a Bulldog." Some like the latter have penetrated into white tradition as well.
I have not heard the Josh White version, so I don't know how closely it resembles the above. But the name "Jerry" is usually associated with the above song. My guess, absent other evidence, is that Josh White may have derived his song from that source. At least it's a good place to start looking.
Bob
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Subject: RE: Origins: Timber Jerry the Mule
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 26 Feb 11 - 06:11 PM
Re copyright, Hurston quite honorably does not assert specific copyright in the song. Thank goodness for the early folklorists who knew better than to try to control traditional songs!
However her book is Mules and Men, Lippincott, Copyright 1935 by Zora Neale Hurston (my edition was reprinted 1970 by Harper Perennial paperbacks.)"
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LYRICS- MULE ON THE MOUNT
[Version #2, as sung by Zora Neale Hurston in the video given as Example #2 below]
Cap'n got a mule, mule on the mount called Jerry
Haa!
Cap'n got a mule, mule on the mount called Jerry
Gonna ride him down, Lawd, Lawd gonna ride him down.
I got a woman shake like jelly all over
Haa!
I got a woman shake like jelly all over
Haa!
Her hips so broad, Lawd, Lawd her hips so broad.
My little woman, she had a baby this morning
Haa!
My little woman , she had a baby this morning
Haa!
He had blue eyes, Lawd, Lawd, he had blue eyes
I outa had told her
He musta be the hell fired captain’s
Hmm
I outa had told her
He must be the hell fired captain’s
Haa!
He had blue eyes, Lawd Lawd he had blue eyes
Oh don’t you hear them
A coo coo bird a keep on hollerin
Haa!
Oh don’t you hear them
A coo coo bird a keep on hollerin
Haa!
It looks like rain, Lawd, Lawd, it looks like rain.
I got a rain-bow wrapped and tied around my shoulder,
Haa!
I got a rain-bow wrapped and tied around my shoulder,
Haa!
It ain't goin' rain, Lawd, Lawd, it ain't goin' rain
Oh hand me down two, three cans of tomatoes
Haa!
Oh hand me down two, three cans of tomatoes
Haa!
And a can of corn, Lawd Law a can of corn
I got a woman she's pretty but she's too bulldozing,
I got a woman she's pretty but she's too bulldozing,
She won't live long, Lawd, Lawd, she won't live long.
-snip-
*transcribed by Azizi Powell from; Additions & corrections are welcome.
Notes about some of the words in this song:
Mount = mountain
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Cap'n [captain] = the White boss
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The sound "Haa!" is a sound approximation used by the gandy dancers [railroad laborers] to indicate a particular movement. Read this excerpt about another gandy dancer song:
From http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Linin_Track.htm
Excerpt from notes for the African American song “Linin’ Track
"Tie shuffling' is the lining or straightening out of the railroad track. To understand the work-rhythm that forms the chant it will be necessary to describe Henry Trevelyan's section gang as it worked to the tune. Henry, the foreman, stooped over and squinted off down the shining rail; then stood up and bawled out directions to his gang in the impossibly technical language of the railroad. They, with heavy bars
off down the track, jammed their lining bars down under the rail on the inner side, and braced against them. One of their number, a handsome yellow man, when he was sure they were ready to heave, threw back his head and sang. On the first and next to last beat of every verse, each man threw his weight against his bar; the refrain was repeated until Henry, who had kept his eye on the rail meanwhile, shouted his directions about the next 'johnnyhead'. At that signal, the song was broken off , the gang stopped heaving, and the whole scene was repeated a few yards on down the track."
-snip-
I think that the sound "Haa" in Lyric Example #2 pf "Mule On The Mount" rhymes with the musical note "faa" and is the beginning sound in the word "laugh". I've also seen that sound given as "hah".
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"too bulldozing" = "too bossy".
Additional notes about this song are included in the showcase examples that are found below.
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SHOWCASE EXAMPLES
Example #1: African American Folk Music (FL): Mule on the Mount
Voices in Time, Published on May 6, 2016
Title: Mule on the Mount, Other Title: Poor Lazarus Hiking Jerry Every Mail Day Stewboy Captain's Mule Lord, Lord,
Contributor Names: Kennedy, Stetson (Collector)Halpert, Herbert, 1911-2000 (Collector)Hurston, Zora Neale (Speaker)Halpert, Herbert, 1911-2000
(Speaker)Hurston, Zora Neale (Performer),
Created / Published: Jacksonville, Florida,
Subject Headings: - African Americans- Work songs- Songs- United States -- Florida -- Duval County -- Jacksonville, Genre: Songs,
Notes: - Zora Neale Hurston, originally of Eatonville, Florida, was already a published novelist and folklorist when she took a job with the Federal Writers' Project in Florida.- [Zora Neale Hurston said that “Mule On The Mount” was] The most widely-distributed work song in the United States, with a consistent tune but varying verses. Zora Neale Hurston originally learned "Mule on the Mount" from George Thomas in Eatonville, Florida. Sung here in track-lining rhythm, it is also sung in other work sites, such as the lumber camps, and in recreational venues such as the "jooks."
Performance Note: "Mule on the Mount" (vocals) performed by Zora Neale Hurston at Federal Music Project Office, Jacksonville, Florida, on June 18, 1939., Medium: Sound disc : analog ; 12 in., Call Number/Physical Location: AFC 1939/005: AFS 03136 B01, Source Collection: Herbert Halpert 1939 Southern States Recording Expedition (AFC 1939/005), Repository: American Folklife Center, Digital Id: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/afcflwpa.3...
Photographs in this collection are from the Library of Congress Florida category, 1930-39, including Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-And-White Negatives. Please see channel description for copyright statement. The videos on this channel feature uncensored historical documents, which may on occasion contain offensive material.
-snip-
This summary is reformatted for this post to enhance its readability.
“track lining songs” = songs that are sung by Black American workers who built [lined] the railroad tracks
-snip-
This song begins at 1:25 of this sound file.
In the beginning of this sound file Zora Neale Hurston says that she is going to sing a "lining rhythm" [meaning "a song that was sung by railroad workers "lining (railroad) track". Hurston said that she is going to call it "Mule On The Mount" although you can start with any verse that you want".
The lyrics for this song are given as Lyric Example #2.
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Example #2: Zora Neale Hurston Fieldwork 1928
Andrew Rasmussen, Published on Aug 11, 2013
I do not claim anything original from this video.
-snip-
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/03/heres-fantastic-find-1928-film-clip-of.html for a pancocojams post about the segment of this showcased film clip that shows children playing a ring game (with a boy in the middle dancing) - from 3:24 to 4:50 in this YouTube video.
The lyrics for this song are given as Lyric Example #2.
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