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Thursday, April 11, 2024

The Army Cadence "Pebbles And Bam Bam" Is Based On The First Verse Of The Early 20th Century Song "Raise A Ruckus Tonight"


Team Stay Motivated, Sep 19, 2016

These Warriors are camo up and headed to chow right after their final inspection prior to Vic Forge... they are Inspired, Motivated, and are on their last push to complete basic training... Th[ese are] your future Leaders that will protect your families and you at night and protecting you from harms way... Strive for Greatness!!!
-snip-
The "Pebbles And Bam Bam" cadence is found at 3:09 to 4:31 in this video. Read the lyrics for this version below in this post.

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post documents the similarities between the "Raise A Ruckus Tonight", "Three Little Angels" and the "Pebbles And Bam Bam" army cadence. 

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are featured in these videos and thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post .

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RAISE A RUCUS (RUCKUS) TONIGHT

Gonna Raise a Ruckus Tonight ~ Carlisle Brothers with Guitars and Mandolin (1939)

Hankfan Hankfan, May 12, 2023  #78rpm #1939 #Country
-snip-
The earliest documentation of the song "Raise A Ruckus Tonight" is found in African American university professor and folklorist Thomas W. Talley's 1922  collection of songs entitled Negro Folk Rhymes: Wise And Other Wise. Click http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27195/27195-h/27195-h.htm page 90 for that song.


The first verse of that version of "Raise A Ruckus Tonight" isn't used in any other version of that song that I've come across. Here's that verse (given with amended spelling for the plural form of the pejorative referent that is commonly written now as "the n word" That word is completely spelled out in that song. The words that are given in brackets are the group's responses to the leader's call]

"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)…."
-snip-
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ruckus# gives this definition for the word "ruckus"  -"a noisy fight or disturbance, ROW, COMMOTION" 

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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/12/raise-ruckus-tonight-examples-comments.html "Raise A Ruckus Tonight (examples & comments)" for the complete lyrics for that 1922 version of that song.

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THREE LITTLE ANGELS (ALL DRESSED IN WHITE)

Three Little Angels 

onmyHONOUR, May 21, 2013
-snip-
This children's counting song is titled "Three Little Angels", "Ten Little Angels" or some other number.

It's clear that the basic words for the children's non-religious song "Three Little Angels" (All dressed in white)" have their source in the first verse of "Raise A Rucus Tonight" (as given in Thomas W. Talley's Negro Folk Rhymes: Wise And Other Wise). However, all of the lyrics of  "Raise A Rukcus Tonight" and "Three Little Angels" aren't the same . Also"Three Little Angels" is sung in unison while early versions of "Raise A Ruckus Tonight" are sung in a call and response pattern.

Furthermore, the tune and tempo for "Three Little Angels" and the tunes and tempos for renditions of "Raise A Ruckus Tonight" that we know about aren't the same.*

*Unfortunately, the tune that was used for the version of "Raise A Rucus Tonight" that is given in Thomas W. Talley's Negro Folk Rhymes book isn't known. 

I haven't found any information about when "Three Little Angels (All dressed in White)" was first sung, but my guess is that it probably was composed in the 1940s around the same time as the children's rhyme "Miss Susie Had A Steamboat" which has a very similar profanity avoidance lyric pattern. In the case of "Three Little Angels", the "profanity" that is avoided is the word "hell".

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LYRICS - THREE LITTLE ANGELS (All dressed in white) 

Three little angels,
all dressed in white,
tried to get to heaven on the end of a kite,
but the kite,
it broke,
and down they all fell,
they didn’t get to heaven,
but they all went to….

(repeat, replacing THREE with TWO and then ONE, then move on to next verse)

Three little devils,
all dressed in red,
tried to get to heaven on the end of a thread,
but the thread,
it broke,
and down they all fell,
they didn’t get to heaven,
but they all went to…

(Two, One)

Three little martians,
all dressed in green,
tried to get to heaven in a washing machine,
but the washing machine
it broke,
and down they all fell,
they didn’t get to heaven,
but they all went to…

BED!"...

https://myvirtualsongbook.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/three-little-angels/
-end of quote 

Notice how in subsequent verses of contemporary versions of "Three Little Angels" other characters such as "devils" and "Martians" substitute for "angels". There also are several different ending lines for contemporary versions of this song. Among those lines are:

"They didn't go to heaven
They all went to 
bed"

"Don't get excited,
Don't lose your head.
They didn't get to heaven but they all went to bed!"

"Don't get excited and don't be mislead
Instead of going to heaven, they all went to
bed".

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE "PEBBLES AND BAM BAM" ARMY CADENCE 
"Pebbles and Bam Bam" are names for two fictional characters in the popular television animated series The Flintstones.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flintstones 
"The Flintstones is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, which takes place in a romanticized Stone Age setting and follows the titular family, the Flintstones, and their next-door neighbors, the Rubbles. It was originally broadcast on ABC from September 30, 1960, to April 1, 1966, and was the first animated series with a prime-time slot on television.[2]

 The show follows the lives of Fred and Wilma Flintstone and their pet dinosaur, Dino, and they later on have a baby girl named Pebbles. Barney and Betty Rubble are their neighbors and best friends, and later on adopt a super-strong baby boy named Bam-Bam and acquire a pet hopparoo (kangaroo) called Hoppy."...
-end of quote- 

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"Pebbles And Bam Bam" is the name of a United States Army cadence (jody) that is based on the children's song "Three Little Angels".* 

* his statement that the children's song "Three Little Angels" pre-dates the army cadence "Pebbles And Bam Bam" is based on my extrapolations regarding the dates of the cultural influences on these compositions. I haven't found any early dates for "Three Little Angels"  besides the first verse for "Raise A Ruckus Tonight" in Thomas W. Talley's 1922 book Negro Folk Rhymes: Wise And Other Wise. 

I also haven't found any definitive early date for the "Pebbles And Bam Bam" army cadence besides "the 1980s" (in several YouTube comments) and the comment that that cadence could have pre-dated the 1980s since The Flintstones television series was so popular in the 1960s.  If you have any information about when either or both of these compositions were first documented, please share that information in the comment section for this pancocojams post.  

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LYRICS - PEBBLES AND BAM BAM 
(Version from Video #1 given at the top of this pancocojams post )  

[The troop repeats each line that the Sergeant sings.] 

Pebbles and Bam-Bam on a Friday night

Trying to get to heaven on a paper kite

Then Lightning struck and down they fell 

Instead of getting to heaven, they went straight to hell

Singin Yabba a dabba a dabbaly doo

Yabba daba daba daba a dabbly doo

And Dino the dog was on the bone 

While Fred and Barney rocked the microphone

Singin “Yabba daba daba a dabbaly do”

 Yabba daba, Yaba daba

 Yabba daba daba daba daba daaaaaba do!"
-snip-
This is my transcription from that video. Additions and corrections are welcome. 

Here's another version of "Pebbles And Bam Bam" that is given in the comment section of this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm-Mts6ni2E

@bigstuff3005, 2023
"Pebbles and bamm bamm on a Monday night
Tried to get to heaven on a C-47 flight

Lightning struck and down they soared
Instead of going to heaven they both went to war

Dino the dog was chewing out those rounds
While Fred and Barney heard those guerilla sounds

There was nothing Fred and Barney could do
Except singing, “yabba dabba dabba doo”

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