David Culgan, Aug 28, 2015
Provided to YouTube by CDBaby
Miss Lucy Long · Camptown Shakers
Shakedown
℗ 2006 Camptown Shakers
Released on: 2006-01-01
Auto-generated by YouTube.
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The lyrics for this example doesn't include "the n word".
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents some information and comments about the 19th century United States minstrel song "Miss Lucy Long" (also known as "Lucy Long" and "Lucy Neal").
A sound file of a 2006 recording of that song is embedded in this post.
This post only includes a sample of lyrics for "Miss Lucy Long". However, "complete" lyrics for certain examples of "Miss Lucy Long" can be found on some of the online sources whose links that are included in this post.
WARNING- "Miss Lucy Long"songs, like many minstrel songs, often include the derogatory referent that is usually given nowadays as "th n word".
The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, and cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the group that is featured in the YouTube sound file that is embedded in this post.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/11/information-about-examples-of-19th.html for the pancocojams post entitled "Information About & Examples Of The 19th Century Minstrel Song "Miss Lucy Long", The Source Of "Miss Lucy" In The Rhyme "Miss Lucy Had A Baby".
That pancocojams is on the same subject as this 2025 post but includes some different content.
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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE ABOUT MINSTREL SONGS
Since this pancocojams blog focuses on African American culture and other Black cultures throughout the world, I would like to share the reason why I'm publishing posts on 19th century minstrel songs.
My focus on 19th century minstrel songs in this pancocojams blog shouldn't be interpreted to mean that I believe that Black Americans composed these songs.
However, I believe that some themes, terms, and some previously existing floating verses that Black Americans did compose (largely as Southern plantation secular dance/work songs) were taken from those sources by White composers and used in a number of minstrel songs. White men are named as the composers of those songs without any acknowledgement of those Black sources.
I recognize those Black contributions through these posts and I also recognize that some blackfaced minstrels were Black Americans. The influence of Black Americans in minstrelsy extends from the United States South to music traditions in other parts of the world including Great Britain and South Africa.
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INFORMATION AND COMMENTS ABOUT THE MINSTREL SONG "MISS LUCY LONG"
These online sources are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Lucy_Long
"Miss Lucy Long", also known as "Lucy Long" as well as by other variants, is an American song that was popularized in the blackface minstrel show.
After its introduction to the stage by the Virginia Minstrels in 1843, "Miss Lucy Long" was adopted by rival troupes. George Christy's cross-dressed interpretation standardized the portrayal of the title character and made the song a hit in the United States. "Miss Lucy Long" became the standard closing number for the minstrel show, where it was regularly expanded into a comic skit complete with dialogue.
Versions were printed in more songsters and performed in more minstrel shows than any other popular song in the antebellum period.
In blackface minstrelsy, the name Lucy came to signify any sexually promiscuous woman.
History
The first published edition of "Miss Lucy Long" is
uncredited in an 1842 songster called Old American Songs. Billy Whitlock of the
Virginia Minstrels later claimed the song in his autobiography: "I
composed ... 'Miss Lucy Long' (the words by T. G. Booth) in 1838."[1]
Despite predating the minstrel show, "Miss Lucy Long" gained its fame there.[2] The song was the first wench role in minstrelsy. The Virginia Minstrels performed it as their closing number from their earliest performances. Dan Gardner introduced what would become the standard Lucy Long costume, skirts and pantalettes.[3] George Christy's interpretation for the Christy Minstrels became the standard for other troupes to follow.[4] The New York Clipper ignored Gardner completely and wrote "George [Christy] was the first to do the wench business; he was the original Lucy Long."[5]
By 1845, the song had become the standard minstrel show closing number,[6] and it remained so through the antebellum period.[7] Programs regularly ended with the note that "The concert will conclude with the Boston Favorite Extravaganza of LUCY LONG."[8] The name Lucy came to signify a woman who was "sexy, somewhat grotesque, and of suspect virtue" in minstrelsy. Similar songs appeared, including "Lucy Neal".[9] In the late 1920s, a dance called the Sally Long became popular; the name may derive from the minstrel song.[10]
Musicologist Robert B. Winans found versions of "Miss Lucy Long" in 34% of minstrel show programs he examined from the 1843–52 period and in 55% from 1843 to 1847, more than any other song.[11] Mahar's research found that "Miss Lucy Long" is the second most frequent song in popular songsters from this period, behind only "Mary Blane".[12] The song enjoyed a resurgence in popularity from 1855 to 1860, when minstrelsy entered a nostalgic phase under some companies.[13]
[…]
For nineteenth-century audiences, the comedy of "Lucy
Long" came from several different quarters. Eric Lott argues that race is
paramount. The lyrics are in an exaggerated form of Black Vernacular English,
and the degrading and racist depictions of Lucy—often described as having
"huge feet" or "corncob teeth"—make the male singer the
butt of the joke for desiring someone whom white audiences would find so
unattractive.[17] However, in many variants, Lucy is desirable—tall, with good
teeth and "winning eyes".[18] Musicologist William J. Mahar thus
argues that, while the song does address race, its misogyny is in fact more
important. "Miss Lucy Long" is a "'public expressions of male
resentment toward a spouse or lover who will not be subservient, a woman's
indecision, and the real or imagined constraints placed on male behaviors by
law, custom, and religion."[19] The song reaffirms a man's supposed right
to sexual freedom[20] and satirizes courtship and marriage.[21] Still, the fact
that the minstrel on stage would desire someone the audience knew to be another
man was a source of comic dramatic irony.[20]
[…]
"Miss Lucy Long and Her Answer", a version
published in 1843 by the Charles H. Keith company of Boston, Massachusetts,
separates the song into four stanzas from the point of view of Lucy's lover and
four from Lucy herself. She ultimately shuns "de gemman Dat wrote dat
little song, Who dare to make so public De name ob Lucy Long" and claims
to prefer "De 'stinguished Jimmy Crow."[26]
Structure and performance
"Miss Lucy Long" is a comic banjo tune,[9] and there is little melodic variation between published versions.[12] Nevertheless, the tune is well-suited to embellishment and improvisation. The verses and refrain use almost identical music, which enabled troupes to vary the verse/chorus structure and to add play-like segments.[9] A repeated couplet binds the piece together and gives it a musical center around which these embellishments can occur.[27]
The lyrics of the comic banjo tune, are written in
exaggerated African American Vernacular English and tell of the courtship or
marriage of the male singer and the title character. "Miss Lucy Long"
satirizes black concepts of beauty and courtship and American views of marriage
in general. The song is misogynistic; the male character dominates Lucy and
continues his sexually promiscuous lifestyle despite his relationship with her.
Minstrels usually performed the song as part of a sketch in which one minstrel cross dressed to play Lucy Long. The blackface players danced[9] and sang with regular interruptions of comic dialogue. The part of Lucy was probably not a speaking role and relied entirely on pantomime.[21]”…
****
ONLINE SOURCE #2
From https://motoole.omeka.net/exhibits/show/u-s--mexico-war-songs-and-musi/-miss-lucy-long--1842
"Miss Lucy Long" 1842 [This is a complete reprint of this page except
for a small drawing of a musical score for this song with lyrics that are
indecipherable.]
-snip-
The next page in that website is for the song “Miss Lucy Neal” which was published in 1846.
****
ONLINE SOURCE #3
From https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Miss_Lucy_Long The Traditional Tune Archive- Miss Lucy Long
…”MISS LUCY LONG. AKA - "Lucy Long (1)." American, Air (2/4 time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. A minstrel-era comic love song popular in the mid-19th century composed in 1842 by William M. "Billy" Whitlock [1] (1813–1878), an American blackface performer. Biography:Billy Whitlock was a member of the earliest minstrel troupes, the Virginia Minstrels (with fiddler Dan Emmett, Frank Bower nd Richard Pelham), formed in 1843. Prior to that Whitlock had a solo blackface and duet acts that he performed at various venues, including P.T. Barnum's circus. After the breakup of the Virginia Minstrels, Whitlock performed with a variety of troupes, many of which were put together for a traveling season or two, only to recombine with different personnel and different names for the next season. His last public blackface performance was at a circus in 1855.
Whitlock's song "Lucy Long" was a hit for both the Virginia Minstrels and the Christy Minstrels in the first decade of minstrel performances. It acquired many sets of words, and entered oral tradition.
The Virginia Minstrels, 1843
Now I am come afore you
To sing a littel song
I play upon de banjo,
An' dey call it Lucy Long.
Chorus:
Oh, take time, said Lucy,
Oh, Miss Lucy Long;
Den take time, said Lucy,
Oh, Miss Lucy Long.
The tune is printed in one of the earliest surviving collections of minstrel tunes, an 1848 banjo tutor written by Boston publisher Elias Howe, whose pseudonym Gumbo Chaff, a name taken from Thomas Dartmouth Rice's 1834 blackface character. The tutor was republished in 1851 in Boston by Oliver Ditson who, in 1850, had purchased the rights to several of Howe's publications, on the condition that Howe not publish any similar works for ten years.”…
****
ONLINE SOURCE #4
http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/miss-lucy-long--version-1-also-rock-the-cradle.aspx
Rock the Cradle Lucy- Two Versions from 1844
“Rock the Cradle Lucy/Lucy Long/Miss Lucy Long/Rock The
Cradle Joe
Bluegrass and Old-Time Breakdown; Galax Area, North Carolina and Virginia; “Miss Lucy Long/Lucy Long” Widely Known Minstrel Song
ARTIST: Billy Whitlock of the Virginia Minstrels; Two versions
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: 1844 The first published edition of "Miss Lucy Long" is uncredited in a 1842 songster called Old American Songs. Billy Whitlock of the Virginia Minstrels later claimed the song in his autobiography: "I composed . . . 'Miss Lucy Long' (with words by T. G. Booth) in 1838." “Rock The Cradle Lucy” Songs appear in the early 1900’s recorded by the Cofer Brothers in 1929.
[…]
OTHER NAMES: Miss Lucy Long; Lucy Long; Rock That/The Cradle
Lucy
[…]
From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia: Miss Lucy Long is a
comic banjo tune, the lyrics, written in exaggerated Black Vernacular English,
tell of the courtship or marriage of the male singer and the title character.
The song is highly misogynistic; the male character dominates Lucy and
continues his sexually promiscuous lifestyle despite his relationship with her.
"Miss Lucy Long" thus satirizes black concepts of beauty and
courtship and American views of marriage in general.
After its introduction to the stage by the Virginia Minstrels in 1843, "Miss Lucy Long" was adopted by rival troupes. George Christy's cross-dressed interpretation standardized the portrayal of the title character and made the song a hit in the United States. "Miss Lucy Long" became the standard closing number for the minstrel show, where it was regularly expanded into a comic skit complete with dialogue. Versions were printed in more songsters and performed in more minstrel shows than any other popular song in the antebellum period. In blackface minstrelsy, the name Lucy came to signify any sexually promiscuous woman.
[…]
For Ninteenth-century audiences, the comedy of "Lucy
Long" came from several different quarters. Eric Lott argues that race is
paramount. The lyrics are in an exaggerated form of Black Vernacular English,
and the degrading and racist depictions of Lucy—often described as having
"huge feet" or "corncob teeth"—make the male singer the
butt of the joke for desiring someone whom white audiences would find so
unattractive. However, in many variants, Lucy is desirable—tall, with good
teeth and "winning eyes".
Musicologist William J. Mahar thus argues that, while the song does address race, its misogyny is in fact more important. "Miss Lucy Long" is a "'public expressions of male ressentment toward a spouse or lover who will not be subservient, a woman's indecision, and the real or imagined constraints placed on male behaviors by law, custom, and religion." The song reaffirms a man's supposed right to sexual freedom and satirizes courtship and marriage.[9] Still, the fact that the minstrel on stage would desire someone the audience knew to be another man was a source of comic dramatic irony.
[…]
The first published edition of "Miss Lucy Long" is
uncredited in a 1842 songster called Old American Songs. Billy Whitlock of the
Virginia Minstrels later claimed the song in his autobiography: "I
composed . . . 'Miss Lucy Long' (the words by T. G. Booth) in 1838."
Despite predating the minstrel show, "Miss Lucy Long" gained its fame there. The song was the first wench role in minstrelsy. The Virginia Minstrels performed it as their closing number from their earliest performances. Dan Gardner introduced what would become the standard Lucy Long costume, skirts and pantalettes. George Christy's interpretation for the Christy Minstrels became the standard for other troupes to follow. The New York Clipper ignored Gardner completely and wrote "George [Christy] was the first to do the wench business; he was the original Lucy Long."
By 1845, the song had became the standard minstrel show closing number, and it remained so through the antebellum period. Programs regularly ended with the note that "The concert will conclude with the Boston Favorite Extravaganza of LUCY LONG." The name Lucy came to signify a woman who was "sexy, somewhat grotesque, and of suspect virtue" in minstrelsy. Similar songs appeared, including "Lucy Neal". In the late 1920s, a dance called the Sally Long became popular; the name may derive from the minstrel song.
Musicologist Robert B. Winans found versions of "Miss Lucy Long" in 34% of minstrel show programs he examined from the 1843–52 period and in 55% from 1843–47, more than any other song. Mahar's research found that "Miss Lucy Long" is the second most frequent song in popular songsters from this period, behind only "Mary Blane".The song enjoyed a resurgence in popularity from 1855–60, when minstrelsy entered a nostalgic phase under some companies.
[...]
Miss Lucy Long has been collected in West Indian Islands by Stan Hugill and
blues/jazz versions with the Lucy Long name were popular in the 1920’s-30’s.
The Rock the Cradle Lucy fiddle breakdown is different song that the Miss Lucy
Long versions sharing the title and some lyrics.”…
****
ONLINE SOURCE #5
From https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=119975
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Miss Lucy Long (minstrel)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 Apr 09 - 05:17 PM
"This minstrel song is mentioned in chanteys and was revised in presentations by several minstrel groups. It has persisted in folk use, and was collected in the John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip (collected in Texas, recording at American Memory).
Lucy Long is included in the Fiddlers Companion."
****
ONLINE SOURCE #6
From https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=66828
Subject: RE: Origins:
Lucy Neale
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Jul 05 - 10:23 PM
(The details below I wanted for my notes, I apologise for
adding volume to this thread).
James Sanford is accepted by most writers as the composer. A midi to his sheet music is at pdmusic, linked by Masato, 08 Feb. 04. In the sheet music published by Fiot, Sanford is called "The celebrated NEGRO singer and dancer." He was a blackface minstrel. Pdmusic took the midi from sheet music in a London edition, "Lucy Neal," also pub. in 1844, but apparently Sanford is credited.
In the Fiot copy, the master's name was 'Meal,' in the
English copy it was 'Beal.' This is the tune usu. associated with the
"Song of Texas."
Also in 1844:
"Miss Lucy Neale or the Yellow Gal" was pub. by
Geo. Willig, arr. for piano by James W. Porter. Here, the master's name is
'Deal.' The music is somewhat different. "Philadelphis concerts."
Lyrics different from those of Sanford.
"Miss Lucy Neale or the Yellow Gal" pub. Atwill,
NY, arr. for piano by N. Barckley. From the Congo Melodists. Master's name is
'Deal.' Music differs slightly from Sanford's and Porter's sheet music.
"Lucy Neale," pub. J. G. Osbourne, Philadelphia,
arr by banjoist Charles Von Bonnhorst. Master's name Beale. Music seems closer
to Sanford's. Lyrics different from those of Sanford, and Porter. American
Memory have a copy they date later.
"Oh Poor Miss Lucy Neale," pub. Oliver Ditson, Quickstep by Edward L. White. Catalogued as 1844, but deposited Feb., 1845. Seems more akin to the Porter arrangement; combined with "Dandy Jim."
"Miss Lucy Neale," pub. Firth and Hall, 1845, arr. piano by W. R. Coppock. These are variations, departing from the usual melody.
"Miss Lucy Neale and Dandy Jim," 1846, Quickstep,
pub. F. D. Benteen, arr. D. Tucker.
"Miss Lucy Neale," pub. Saml. Carusi, Baltimore,
n. d., music similar to Porter. (Levy Sheet Music)
"Miss Lucy Neale," E. Ferrett & Co., Phila.,
n. d., The Virginia Minstrels Cotillions (Boatman's Dance, Dandy Jim, Lucy
Long, Dan Tucker (jig), with dance instructions). Ethiopian Serenaders, arr. by
Old Dan Tucker."...
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Pancocojams Editor's Note: In this comment, "Negro singer and dancer" doesn't mean a person who was Black American. Instead, this comment refers to a White man who performed minstrel songs which focused on Black Americans.
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