"Here We Go Zoodio" ("Zudie-O", "Zudio","Zodiac") - Part I (Words To Various Versions)

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest update: Nov. 24, 2023 

This is Part I of a two part pancocojams series on the African American originated singing game "Here We Go Zoodio" (also given as "Zudie-O", Zudio" and "Zodiac").

This post provides text (words only) examples of "Here We Go Zoodio". Some of the quoted examples are given without the performance directions that are also included with those examples.*

Read my comments below about my speculations about the "great big man (or "big fat man") from Tennessee" referent in some "Zoodio" singing games.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/05/here-we-go-zoodio-zudie-o-zudiozodiac_8.html for Part II of this series. Part II showcases selected videos of "Here We Go Zoodio" (also given as "Zudie-O", Zudio" and "Zodiac").

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

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the creators of these singing games. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.
-snip-
*Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/04/this-way-valerie-strut-miss-lucy-strut.html for a pancocojams post on the African American & Caribbean singing game "This A Way Valerie" (also known as "Strut Miss Lucy").

"This A Way Valerie" (also known as "Strut Miss Lizzie", Strut Miss Lucy", "Strut Miss Susie" and other titles) is very similar to "Zoodio". Almost all of the "Zoodio" and the "This A Way Valerie" family of singing games (that I'm aware of) use the same tune as "Shortnin 'Bread".
"This A Way Valerie" (and other titles) are performed in longways sets/contra dances) as are the "Zoodio" singing games. The performance activities for both of these "families" of singing games are quite similar if not the same.

The words for the singing game "Strut Miss Lizzie" are very similar to the words "Zudie-O", a another African American singing game that is performed as a longways set (read the section on this singing game immediately below). Given the information that is given in Step It Down, a 1979 book of Gullah (African American) children's singing games edited by Bessie Smith and Bess Lomax Hawes that Bessie Jones remembers "Zudio-O" from her childhood (in the very early 20th century), the "Strut Miss Lizzie" singing games borrowed from "Zudio" singing games and not the other way around.
-snip-
This post doesn't include the text of Raffi's song "Sodeo" as I consider it a slightly adapted form of "Zoodio".

Here's a link to that song's lyrics https://genius.com/Raffi-sodeo-lyrics.

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
The first three verses to that singing game are relatively consistent:
1. here we go zoodio...all night long
2. Step back Sally ... all night long
3. Walking through (or "down") the alley ...all night long

Either the example ends after that third verse (and the entire song is repeated) or the variation in examples of this singing game occurs with the addition of another verse or verses.

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TEXT EXAMPLES OF "HERE WE GO ZOODIO" ("ZUDIO", "ZODIAC")
These examples are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.
Example #1:
This version of "Here We Go Zoodio" is the one that I learned in the 1950s during vacation Bible School (in Atlantic City, New Jersey. One of the vacation Bible school teachers, Mrs. Janie Mae Owens taught this and another singing game ("In The River/On The Bank") to children who attended that summer program. I remember Mrs. Owens saying that she played these games when she was a child growing up in North Carolina [note Dec:22, 2021- In other online sites in which I added this example (on mudcat, cocojams, and pancocojams) I wrote that Ms. Owens was from Georgia. I believe that my memory of her saying that she was from North Carolina is the correct recollection.] 

The words to that version of "Here We Go Zoodio" are:
Here we go Zoodio, Zoodio, Zoodio
Here we go Zoodio all night long.

Oh, step back Sally, Sally, Sally
Step back Sally all night long

Walking through the alley, alley, alley
Walking through the alley all night long.

[The song then begins again from the beginning.]

The way I learned "Zoodio" was like so:
1. children chose one partner
2. the two partners stand facing each other
3. the two partners crossed their hands and held their partner's hand
4. while singing the first lines "here we go zoodio, zoodio, zoodio here we go zoodio all night long", the partners swing their crossed hands back and forth to the beat, and while standing still, also move their slightly bent knees up & down to the same beat
5. on the words, "Step back sally", the partners jump back and forth away from, and then toward their partner
6. on the words, "walking through the alley", the partners strut to another partner
7. the song begins again and continues in this pattern
-snip-
This is an amended form of a comment that I wrote on a Mudcat Folk Music "Singing games" thread in October 4, 2006.
-snip-
Many versions of "Zoodio" include at least one other verse than these three verses. It's possible that Mrs. Owens taught us an amended version of the singing game that she played as a child. It's also possible that I've forgotten some of the words that she taught us. However, it appears that the three verses of "Zoodio" which are given above are consistently found (with slight changes) in all of the versions of that singing game that I've collected to date.

I introduced the singing game "Here We Go Zoodio" to (mostly) Black girls and boys [ages 5-12 years old] in the Alafia game song group that I held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and in nearby Braddock, Pennsylvania (around 2001-2006).

As part of the singing game instructions, I told the children that they shouldn't "walk through the alley". Instead, they should strut. I explained to them (and demonstrated) that "strutting" meant to move with a prideful, rhythmic step. Not only did these children not know the "Zoodio" game before I taught it to them, they also didn't know what "strutting" meant and they had some difficulty learning that way of walking. They usually ended up dancing instead of "strutting". That same unfamiliarity with "strutting" appears to be shown in the YouTube videos of "Strut Miss Lucy" (as shown in the videos on that pancocojams posts whose link is given above.). Furthermore, most of the people in the "Zoodio" videos that I've found to date aren't strutting but are dancing or walking, hopping, etc. down the "alley" (the isle in between two vertical lines that are facing each other).

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Example #2:
Pancocojams Editor's note: This excerpt includes just the lyrics and three quotes about this singing game.

From Step It Down: Games, Plays, Songs & Stories From the Afro-American Heritage , edited by Bessie Jones & Bess Lomax Hawes (University of Georgia Press, 1972, pp 137-139). Note: Those pages includes comments, musical notations, and play instructions that aren't given in this post.

"Let’s go zudie-o, zudie-o, zudie-o
Let’s go zudie-o all night long

We’re walking through the alley, alley, alley
We’re walking through the alley All night long

Step back sally sally sally
step back sally all night long

Here comes another one, ‘nother one, ‘nother one
Just like the other one All night long
And they’re going zudie-o, zudie-o, zudie-o
They’re going zudie-o all night long"
-snip-
Here are some other comments from those pages:
The section on zudie-o in the Step It Down book begins with this quote from (African American) Bessie Jones:
You better say "strutting" instead of "trucking". They're about the same thing, but the old folks don't like you saying it that raw...
-snip-
Note that that comment implies that doing the "trucking" dance was considered to be risque. Also, note that this example includes the word "walking" instead of either "strutting or "trucking". The implication is that the word "walking" is a substitution for the words "trucking" and "strutting".
-snip-
Here's another excerpt of that section:
"The term "zudie-o" refers to a movement in the dance in which the active couple, holding hands in a skating position, pull their arms back and forth alternately in a sawing motion to a count of one, two, three, rest."
-snip-
Here's yet another comment from that 1972 book:
"Zudie-o is still danced by children in big cities across the country, but Mrs. Jones remembers it as a feature of country dances of her childhood.*

[Quoting Mrs. Jones:] It's fun to play it with a big crowd, hear the children hollering way out yonder in the dark about how they want to go zudie-o too....Let's go zudie-o!"
-snip-
Click https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Jones_(American_singer) for a Wikipedia page on Bessie Jones (February 8, 1902 – July 17, 1984),born in Georgia.

Bessie Jones remembering "Zudie-o" from her childhood would put that song/singing game in the very 20th century.

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Example #3:
From: Washington D. C., schoolgirls, recorded 1976 at the Smithsonian Institution Festival Of American Folklore, Washington, D.C., [Band 2, "Ring Games and Jump Rope" on Old Mother Hippletoe: Rural and Urban Children's Songs; New World Records; Record Notes by Kate Rinzler, 1978]

"ZODIAC
Here we go Zodiac, Zodiac, Zodiac
Here we go Zoodio all night long!
Oh, step back Sally Sally, Sally
Step back Sally all night long!
Oh -a walkin down the alley, alley, alley.
A-walkin down the alley all night long!
Oh, what did I see?
A big fat man from Tennesse!
I bet you five dollars I can beat that man!
To the front, to the back, to the si'-si' si'
To the front, to the back, to the si'-si'-si'

I called the doctor, and the doctor said
I got a pain in my si', oooo-chi-ah!
I got a pain in my si', oooo-chi-ah!
I got a pain in my si'."
-snip-
Given the demographics of Washington, D.C. in the 1970s, it's very likely that the "Washington D.C. schoolgirls" were Black Americans.

The line "I looked over yonder" is usually given before the line "And what did I see?"

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Example #4:
Pancocojams Editor's Note:
I retrieved the following example (and Example #5) on or prior to April 29, 2008 and included them in a Mudcat folk music discussion thread on Children's Singing Games on that date. 

My comment was quoted on January 13, 2017 by Joe Offer on a short Mudcat discussion thread about the singing game "Zoodio" Click http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=138590 for my comment and other comments on that Mudcat discussion thread.

From http://www.peterandellen.com/lyrics/zudio.htm [This link appears to be viable, but doesn't lead to the lyric page that I retrieved years ago.]

"HERE WE GO ZUDIO
from Pizza Pizzazz, #PEA5CD

Here we go Zudio Zudio, Zudio
Here we go Zudio all night long.
Here we go Zudio Zudio, Zudio
Here we go Zudio all night long.

Step back Sally Sally, Sally
Step back Sally all night long.

Walkin' thru the alley, what do I see?
I see a great big man from Tennessee.
I betcha five dollars that you can't do this:
To the front, to the back
To the side side side.
To the front, to the back
To the side side side.

My mama called the doctor and the doctor said
"Ooh aah, I got a pain in my side"
"Ooh aah, I got a pain in my toe"
"Ooh aah, I got a pain in my tummy"
"Ooh aah, I got a pain in my head."

Here we go Zudio Zudio, Zudio
Here we go Zudio all night long.
Here we go Zudio Zudio, Zudio
Here we go Zudio all night long.

Step back Sally Sally, Sally
Step back Sally all night long.

Walkin' thru the alley, what do I see?
I see a great big man from Tennessee.
I betcha five dollars that you can't do this:
To the front, to the back
To the side side side.
To the front, to the back
To the side side side.

My mama called the doctor and the doctor said
"Ooh aah, I got a pain in my chin"
"Ooh aah, I got a pain in my knee"
"Ooh aah, I got a pain in my neck"
"Ooh aah, I got a pain in my belly button."

Here we go Zudio Zudio, Zudio
Here we go Zudio all night long.
Here we go Zudio Zudio, Zudio
Here we go Zudio all night long.
All night long, all night long."
-snip-
This example and some other examples of "Zoodio" have the doctor complaining about his (or her) body pains. It seems to me that it would the person who called the doctor-in this case-"mama" who would be complaining to the doctor about her pains and not the doctor describing his pains.

Read Example #8 below for a Zoodio example which I believe more authentically has the mother and not the doctor complaining about various physical pains.

Also, click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/07/list-of-african-american-call-doctor.html for a pancocojams post entitled "Partial List Of African American "Call The Doctor" Songs & Rhymes".

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Example #5
From http://www.streetplay.com/discus Streetplay.com Discussion: Girl Games: Other Games: Zoodio* By V Pesante on Thursday, April 12, 2001
"I'm not sure of the proper spelling, but the part I remember goes like this:

Two people stand facing each other, holding hands (one person has arms crossed so that an "X" is formed) and the song begins ( you also pull left, right, etc making a crisscrossing motion with joined hands):

Here we go zoolio, zoolio, zoolio
Here we go zoolio all night long.

(release hands and start going backwards)

Take a step back Sally, Sally, Sally
Walk into the alley, alley, alley.

I went to the country, and what'd I see?
I saw a great big man tryin' to "hypotize" me.

I go way back (put hands on waist & lean back)
Got a hump in my back (lean forward w/hands in small of back)
Do the crab walk, do the crab walk (players "strut" towards each other, still in humped position, and trade places)

The last part is what has me stumped...does anybody remember this at all? I grew up in South Jersey, if that's any help."

[I deleted the email that was included with this comment.]
-snip-
*This link is no longer viable.  

In 2008 I responded to V. Pesante's 2001 query by sharing that I was also from South Jersey and  writing the words to the example that is given as Example #1 of this post. 

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Example #6
From https://wqed.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/afriam.arts.music.zudio/africanafrican-american-culture-zudio/#.WQ_In9Lyvcs

[This site includes a video that I wasn't able to embed. That video shows a Black woman singing these words and playing a guitar and a multi-racial group of girls and boys standing in two vertical lines (not divided by gender) facing each other. The children didn't sing but performed the singing game as directed by the game's words. The lyrics found in this pancocojams post are transcribed from that video.]

"Zudio | African/African-American Culture
This African-American game song is sung to movements described in the lyrics and demonstrated by the children in the audience. Many African-American music and dance styles emphasize rhythm and self-expression, both evident here.

Here we go Zudio, Zudio, Zudio
Here we go Zudio all night long
Step back Sally Sally Sally
Step back Sally
all night long
Walkin through the alley, alley, alley
Walkin through the alley all night long

I looked over yonder and what did I see
A great big man from Tennessee
I bet you five dollars you can’t do this
To the front to the back
to the side side side
To the front to the back
to the side side side"

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Example #7
From http://www.schools.utah.gov/curr/FineArt/Elementary/Songbook/Music/Zoodeo.aspx

[This example is given in this pancocojams post without the actions that are written for each line. This example had a number of typos which I corrected for this post.]

"Short Game: ACTIONS:
Here we go Zudio, Zudio, Zudio,
Here we go Zudio All night long

Step back Sally, Sally, Sally
Step back Sally, all night long.

Walkin' through the alley, alley, alley. –
Walkin' through the alley, all night long.

Game Variation: two lines facing each other
Here we go zoodio zoodio, zoodio
Here we go zoodio, all night long.
Step back Sally, Sally, Sally.
Step back Sally, all night long.

I walked down the alley and what did I see –
I saw a big fat man from Tennessee..
I bet ya five dollars I can beat that man.
I bet ya five dollars I can beat that man. -
To the front, to the bach to the see-saw side..

My mother called the doctor, the doctor said .
Oo, ouch. I got a pain in my side. -
Oo, ouch. I got a pain in my head- -
ouch. I got a pain in my stomach. -
To the front, to the back to the see-saw side
-snip-
Here are two notes from that pdf file:

[...]
-snip-
Here are two notes from that example:
"There are many, many variants to this song."

"(the alley makes reference to the spaces between rows of corn or other vegetables.)"

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Example #8
From http://www.bethsnotesplus.com/2013/07/zudio.html
Lyrics
"Here we go zudio zudio zudio
Here we go zudio all night long.
Step back, Sally, Sally, Sally,
Step back, Sally all night long.

Walkin’ down the alley,
What do I see?
I see a great big man from Tennessee.
Betcha five dollars I could catch that man,
Betcha five dollars I could catch that man.

To the side, to the side,
To the side side side.
To the side, to the side,
To the side side side.

Mama called the doctor
And the doctor said,
“Oooh, ooh, I got a pain in my head,
To the side, to the side,
To the side side side.
To the side, to the side,
To the side side side,
Side side side.”
-
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Example #9:
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoodio

"Zoodio", also spelled zoodeo, zudio, or zudie-o, is an African-American street song and game. Also a song sung by thousands of schools for its fun lyrics and diverse origins.
"The lyrics are generally a variation of the following:

Here we go Zoodio, Zoodio, Zoodio
Here we go Zoodio,
All night long.
Step back, Sally, Sally, Sally
Step back, Sally
All night long.
To the front to the back to the s-s-side, to the s-s-side
To the front to the back to the s-s-side
I looked out my window and what did I see
I saw a big fat man from Tennessee
I bet you five dollars I can beat that man
I bet you five dollars I can beat that man
To the front to the back to the s-s-side, to the s-s-side
To the front to the back to the s-s-side
Walkin' through the alley, alley, alley
Walkin' through the alley
All night long.
-snip-
This Wikipedia page gives a link to my voluntarily deleted cocojams.com website as the archived source for that page.

In that Wikipedia example the "Walking down the alley" is given as the last verse instead of the third verse where it is found in all the other examples (including any examples that I had showcased on that now deleted cocojams page.

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Example #10 
ok the zodiac thing I did at camp but it had more words.

Here comes zodiac zodiac zodiac here comes zodiac all night long
here comes sally walking down the alley here comes sally all night long
here comes another one just like the other one here comes another one all night long.

I looked out yonder and what do I see? A big fat man from tennesse. I bet ya five dollars that ya can't do this, I bet ya five dollars that ya can't do that.

to the front to the back to the side side side. to the front to the back to the side side side. You lean wayyyyyy back, you got a hump on your back, you lean way back you got a hump on your back. Do the camel walk."

-GUEST, 28 Feb 06, https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=31226 Children's singing games
-snip-
"Zodiac" is probably a folk processed form of the word "Zoodio". This African American originated rhyme is often called "Here We Go Zoodio", "Here we go Willobee", "Strut Miss Lucy" and other names.

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTES
Examples of "This A Way Valerie" singing game that I've come across also include "to the side side side" words. The directional words "front, back, side to side" also found in certain other African American originated singing games.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/02/front-back-side-to-side-in-childrens.html "Front, Back, Side To Side" Words In Children's Rhymes.

The examples of "This A Way Valerie" which are included in that pancocojams post whose link is given above include verses about calling the doctor and saying "ooh ah I have a pain in my side" etc." Certain other African American children's rhymes also include those lines.

**
Additional text examples of "Zoodio" are found in the discussion threads for some of the videos that are featured in Part II and/or some of the videos whose links are given in Part II (although those videos aren't embedded in that post.)

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This concludes Part I of the two part series on "Zoodio" singing games.

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