Bessie Jones - "Way Down Yonder, Sometimes" - An Example Of A Call & Response Children's Game Song With Fixed Responses

Bessie Jones - Topic, Nov 7, 2014

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Sometimes · Bessie Jones

Sounds Of The South [album]

 ℗ 1993 Atlantic Recording Corporation For the United States and WEA International Inc. for the world outside of the United States.

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WHAT DOES "CALL & RESPONSE" MEAN IN SONGS & CHANTS?
Explanation #1
From https://www.twinkl.com/teaching-wiki/call-and-response-music "What Is Call & Response Music?"
"In music, a call and response is a series of two parts usually played or sung by different musicians. The second part is heard as a comment about or an answer to what the first has sung."

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Explanation #2
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_and_response_(music)
"In music, call and response is a compositional technique, often a succession of two distinct phrases that works like a conversation in music. One musician offers a phrase, and a second player answers with a direct commentary or response. The phrases can be vocal, instrumental, or both.[1] Additionally, they can take form as commentary to a statement, an answer to a question or repetition of a phrase following or slightly overlapping the initial speaker(s).[2] It corresponds to the call and response pattern in human communication and is found as a basic element of musical form, such as the verse-chorus form, in many traditions."...

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INFORMATION ABOUT THREE TYPES OF CALL & RESPONSE SONGS & CHANTS 
Here's information about three types of call & response patterns based on the nature of the responses:

1. "Echo" responses (usually referred to as "Echo songs")  
In echo songs, the leader (caller) sings or says a passage (a word, phrase, or a short line and the group responds by exactly repeating (echoing) what the leader sang or said (with the same tune , tempo, and inflections i.e. They sing or say the same way the leader sang or said it.)

A familiar example of an echo children's song is "Row Row Row Your Boat".

An example of a R&B song that includes an echo portion is is James Brown's R&B hit song "Say It Loud-I'm Black And I'm Proud". In some portions of that song James Brown (the lead/the caller) commands the group to "Say It Loud" and the group always sings (responds with) the words "I'm Black And I'm Proud". 

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2. Fixed (unchanged) responses
In fixed (unchanged) responses, the leader (call) changes, but the group (response) remains the same throughout the entire song or throughout a portion of the song (In another portion of the song, the group (response) may sing or chant another passage (word or phrase) that then remains fixed (unchanged) for a time or for the rest of the song.

The children's song "Way Down Yonder, Sometimes". is an example of a song in which the leader changes what she or he sings or says, but the group's response remains fixed (unchanged). 

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3. Changed responses
In some songs and chants that include call & response or entirely consist of call & response, the  responses change and the call may also change.

Here's an example of an American military cadence  in which the calls change and their responses change : 
from https://www.bbcmaestro.com/blog/what-is-call-and-response-in-music
" The traditional army chant “My Granny” uses a call-and-response structure:

Call: “When my granny was 91”
Response: “She did PT just for fun.”

Call: “When my granny was 92”
Response: “She did PT better than you.”

Call: “When my granny was 93”
Response: “She did PT better than me"

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INFORMATION ABOUT, LYRICS AND PERFORMANCE ACTIVITIES FOR THE SONG "WAY DOWN YONDER, SOMETIMES"
from the book Step It Down: Games, Plays, Songs & Stories from the Afro-American Heritage, edited by Bessie Jones and Bess Lomax Hawes (published 1972, page 100-101)*
"In this ring play, an account of the doings of magical animals and the courtship feats of human beings is continually punctured by the performers' sardonic remark "Sometimes". The tune, when sung and slapped with strong rhythm, will give you an idea of how interesting only four notes can be.

FORM: Ring of players, not holding hands, one center player.

Lead Voice                           Chorus Voice      Action 

Way down yonder                Sometimes            Center player walks (struts) around the ring

Below the log                       Sometimes                      

Wild geese are holl'ring.      Sometimes 

Ganders trot,                       Sometimes

Bullfrog marry,                     Sometimes

His mother-in-law,               Sometimes.

Now let's get on board,       Sometimes             Center player stands in front of a chosen                                                                                     partner      

I'm going to ball that jack,   Sometimes             Center player balls the jack **

Until my honey comes back, Sometimes           

I want to rear back, Jack,     Sometimes           Center player (and partner) lean back

And get a hump in my back, Sometimes          Center player (and partner) hunch shoulders 

I'm going over here,              Sometimes          Center player takes partner's hand and turns                                                                                her into center of the circle, 

Goin' to get my pal.               Sometimes          taking her place in the ring. Play continues
                                                                          with the new center person"
                                                                                                                                           

 -snip-
*Page 101 in that book includes a musical score and this statement:
"New words and new music adaptation by Bessie Jones, collected and edited with additional new material by Alan Lomax TRO @copyright 1972 Ludlow Music Inc, New York, N. Y used with permission.)"
-snip-
This statement may suggests that "Way Down Yonder, Sometimes" wasn't originally sung as a ring play (a singing game). The beginning lines about "the bullfrog marrying his mother-in-law" are a nod to the 16th century English folk song "Frog Went A Courting". 

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What "way down yonder" means:
"Way down yonder" is a (Southern) African American originated Vernacular English phrase that means something like "a place that is far away from here". 
  
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Description of "Ball The Jack" (from Step It Down book, pages 44-45)   
"Holding the legs together from foot to hip, rotate the knees in a circle, this obviously rotates the hips also; Mrs. Jones seemed to feel this was mildly improper for small children-the  sort of thing that you should tell them not to do, but you know they are going to do it anyway."  

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LYRICS - SOMETIMES
(as sung by Bessie Jones)

Online source- https://genius.com/Bessie-jones-sometimes-lyrics 

Way down yonder, 

Sometimes
Below the log, 

Sometimes
Bullfrog Marry, 

Sometimes
His mother-in-law, 

Sometimes
Now let’s get on the board, 

Sometimes
I’m going to ball that Jack, 

Sometimes
Until my honey comes home, 

Sometimes
I want to rear back jack,

Sometimes
And get a hump in my back, 

Sometimes
I’m going over here, 

Sometimes
Going get my pal, 

Sometimes

X2

-snip-
(About this song from that same genius.com page)

"This song is by Bessie Jones & Group and is sung acapella. It appears on the compilation Southern Folk Heritage Series Recorded in the Field by Alan Lomax (1960.) On an expedition to record and preserve folk songs and musical traditions in various areas, Lomax recorded Jones’s song in Georgia. When the boxset of Lomax’s recordings was reissued in 2003, this was called “a game song for children in the Georgia Sea Islands” about “an account of the doings of magical animals and the courtship feats of human beings is continually punctuated by the chorus’s sardonic refrain ‘Sometimes.’ The tune, when sung and clapped with strong rhythm, will give you an idea of how interesting only four notes can be.”

The song was prominently sampled in “Honey” by Moby, the lead single from his 1999 album Play.

Moby’s “Honey” was also featured in the 2003 American film Holes soundtrack."

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ADDENDUM- A VARIANT CALL & RESPONSE PATTERN IN FOOT STOMPING CHEERS AND IN SOME OF THE CHILDREN'S CAMP SONGS THAT ARE ADAPTED VERSIONS OF THOSE CHEERS

The girls' cheerleader cheers that I refer to as "foot stomping cheers" use/d a variant form of call & response that I refer to as group/consecutive soloists. In those cheers, the group voice (usually commanding a particular action) is heard first and a soloist responds. At the end of the first iteration of that cheer, the cheer begins again from the beginning with the group voice making the same command and the next soloist responding. This pattern continued continues until everyone in that group has had the same equal length time as the soloist.

A few foot stomping cheers live on as particular examples of children's camp songs. Most of those children's camp songs are abbreviated versions ("clips"; portions) of the foot stomping cheer that inspired them. Also, those camp songs usually don't start with the group voice and, partly because of time concerns, each person in the group usually doesn't have a chance to be the soloist.  

Here's an example of one of those foot stomping cheers/camp songs that is sometimes sung as a children's camp song. Notice that this cheer/song begins with the group voice and notice the call & response patterns in that cheer/song:

ROCK THE BOAT

Rock the boat. Don't tip it over.
Rock the boat. Don't tip it over.
Hey, Aniya. "Hey what?"
Hey, Aniya. "Hey what?"
Can you rock the boat? "No way."
Can you rock the boat?! "Ok."
She slides. She slides. She do The Butterfly.
She dips. She dips. She shakes her little hips!
-ti55, Mar 16, 2008, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9QuTsAtQPY
-snip-
This is my transcription of that cheer which is composed using the traditional foot stomping cheer structure. The "rock the boat/don't tip it over" line is a clear indication that this cheer was heavily influenced by The Hues Corporations' 1973 record "Rock The Boat".

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/09/foot-stomping-cheers-alphabetical-list_22.html "Pancocojams Compilation Of Foot Stomping Cheers (Alphabetical List: P- Z)"

 for additional information about foot stomping cheers and more examples of those cheers. That post is one of a five part pancocojams series on foot stomping cheers. The link to all of those posts are given in each post in that series.

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