Edited by Azizi Powell
This post showcases two examples of the United States Civil War Song "Johnny Fill Up The Bowl".
This post is published for folkloric and historical purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the composers of versions of this song. Thanks also to the collectors and publishers of this song, and to all those who are quoted in this post.
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Example #1: JOHNNY FILL UP THE BOWL
Up, Freeman and volunteer,
Hurrah, hurrah!
And crush Rebellion out this year
Hurrah, hurrah!
Up-hoist our country's glorious flag
Down with the Confederate rag;
And we'll all drink stone-blind--
Johnny, fill up the bowl.
The Conscription Act is now passed
Hurrah, hurrah!
And we'll be drafted now at last.
Hurrah, hurrah!
Five Hndred Thousand the latest call,
Wake up, or we'll be ruined all.
And we'll all drink stone-blind--
Johnny, fill up the bowl.
Soon from the distant shores of Maine,
Hurrah, hurrah!
To Georgia's distant sunny plain
Hurrah, hurrah!
Our flag shall wave over ev'y port,
O'er land and sea and then we'll sport;
And we'll all drink stone-blind--
Johnny, fill up the bowl.
And when this cruel war is o'er,
Hurrah, hurrah!
We'll not discharge the Invalid Corps
But to garrison forts or occupy,
A higher station till they die;
And we'll all drink stone-blind--
Johnny, fill up the bowl.
Quoted from http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/old-time-music/old-time-songs/johnny_fill_up_the_bowl.html
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Explanation of certain words or phrases:
Freeman - Black men who are free as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation
Prior to the Emancipation Proclamation [in July 1862] there were Black men who were born free and/or who had purchased their freedom.
As an aside, it can be noted that some Black Americans and some non-Black Americans have the last name "Freeman". That term was also used during medieval times in the United Kingdom to distinguish freeman from serfs.
"conscription finally being passed" = July 17, 1862 [click
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/blacks-civil-war/ for information about this subject]
The use of the term "freeman", the reference to "conscription finally being passed",and the use of the pronoun "we" are indications that this version of "Johnny Fill Up The Bowl" was composed by a Black American.
"fill up the bowl [with liquor]
"and we'll all drink stone-blind" = This probably means veeeery drunk; i.e. "as blind as a stone" (since stones can't see)
In contemporary English saying "drinking (oneself blind)- so that things get blurry and the person can't see.
The phrase "stone blind" appears to be similar but is probably not the same as the use of "stone" as a substitute for the word "very". I think that slang use of the word "stone" as an intensifier first occurred in the mid to late 1960s, for example in the hit song "Stone Soul Picnic" which was recorded by The Fifth Dimensions.
"then we'll sport" - then we'll enjoy ourselves
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Example #2:
JOHNNY FILL UP THE BOWL
Abram Lincoln, where yer 'bout?
Hurrah, hurrah.
Stop this war, for it's played out
Hurrah, hurrah.
Abram Lincoln, what yer 'bout
Stop this war, for it's played out.
We'll all drink stone-blind
Johnny fill up the bowl.
-snip-
Source of this song: "Civil War Street Ballad", Journal of American Folklore, 1892, 269-81
A musical notation is given for this song. But unfortunately, I can't read music and therefore can't tell for sure what the tune is and if its tempo was fast or slow. However, the editor's comment about this example taking "a popular patroit tune" and the use of the name "Johnny" suggests to me that that song used the tune to "When Johnny Comes Marching Home". Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3k8H_9SjoM for a sound file of that song.
The summary of that sound file indicates that "Noted Bandmaster Patrick Gilmore wrote the lyrics for this tune when his band was attached to the 24th Massachusetts Infantry. The tune is the same as the Irish song "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye" but there is some dispute as to which came first."
-snip-
That information was surprising to me as I had apparently mistakenly thought that "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" song referred to the soldiers in the Confederate army, because of their nickname "Johnny reb". I
My guess is that "Johnny" was a general nickname for all White males (in the United States, at least, and perhaps also in what was to become the United Kingdom. At the same time in the United States, if not elsewhere, the general nickname for Black males was either "Sambo" ("Sam") or "George", but I believe that I read that "George came later. And, I read in that same article whose citation I didn't save that at least one general nickname for Black females was "Elizabeth" (Lizzy).
-snip-
Explanation of certain words or phrases:
"where yer 'bout= where are you?
-snip-
This song is included in the book Folklore From The Working Poor edited by Tritram Potter Coffin and Hennig Cohen (Anchor Press, 1973, p. 83). That book featured three example from "Civil War Street Ballad", Journal of American Folklore, 1892, 269-81. However, I only copied the example given above.
[This was about 15 years ago before I had a home computer and I would use the library copy machines and pay 10 cents a page to copy lots of pages of books that I was interested in.]
Here are notes about this song and the other two songs that were featured in that section are quoted in Folklore From The Working Poor from the article "Civil War Street Ballad", Journal of American Folklore, 1892, 269-81
"Military. Songs of this kind were printed on single sheets of coarse paper often without music or indication of authorship, and sold in the streets for a penny and were gathered in dime songsters. These examples were gathered by Alfred M. Williams. Many street ballads show clear signs of folk origin, and others more literary and of known authorship passed into folk tradition. The standard tunes for these three songs which follow have ben supplied by the editors.
"Johnny Fill Up The Bowl": Copperheads, northern sympathizers with the Conferacy, or simply the discouraged and war-weary, also raised their voices in song, like folksingers everywhere borrowing a tune that united them. In this instance they took a popular patriotic tune. Vance Randolph (Ozark Folksongs II, 284) notes a version of this song used as a sea chantey.
"Bummers Come And Meet Us": "Bummers" were soldiers who deserted to loot and were, loosely, raiders. As with sailors' chanteys and plantation work songs, the simple repetitiou form of thee verses encouragaged communal composition-exapansion and iprovisation by anonymous singers. To thee eextent it was used by soldiers as a marching song it was, in a strict sense, more of an occupational song than the others in this group.
"The Valiant Conscript": A shared tradition, North and South, is eevideent in this southern version off "Yankee Doodle", which, like "Dixie", calls to mind the banter and low humor of the
minstrel stage.
-snip-
My comment:
Given these notes and the use of the "When Johnny Comes Marching home song, I think that this version of that song was probably composed by White Americans.
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