Information About Coon Songs & Some Lyrics For "Uncle Eph's Got The Coon"

Hank fan Hank fan, Feb 4, 2021

A silly ditty from everybody's favorite grandpa! This one was released on #KingRecords 867, the "A" side to "Five-String Banjo Boogie" …

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part I of a two part pancocojams series about the old time song "Uncle Eph's Got The Coon" (or similar titles including "Uncle Ephraim's Got The Coon", "Brother Ephraim", and "Brother Ephus".)

This post showcases a sound file of "Uncle Eph's Got The Coon" and presents selected comments from two Mudcat Folk Music Forum discussion threads about this song.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/07/additional-lyric-versions-for-comments.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. That post showcases another sound file of "Uncle Eph's Got The Coon" and presents additional lyric versions, comments about that song sources, floating verses, and possible meaning/s.

The content of this post is presented for historical and folkloric purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who have collected this song. Thanks to Grandpa Jones for his musical legacy, thanks to all those who are quoted in this post, and thanks to the publisher of this song file on YouTube.

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INFORMATION ABOUT COON SONGS
The word "coon" has two English meanings, both of which are (or were) widely known in the United States :
From https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coon
"Definition of coon

1: RACCOON

2. offensive —used as an insulting and contemptuous term for a Black person

First Known Use of coon

1742, in the meaning defined at sense 1"

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Here's some information about the term "coon songs" which used the second meaning of "coon" as given above:
Excerpt #1
From https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/question/2005/may.htm What Were Coon Songs?
"The term coon did not originally appear as a racial slur term for a Black American, though over a short period of time it evolved into that. In early minstrel songs, the "coon" was reference to a raccoon, whose meat was supposedly preferred by plantation slaves. In many cases, for unknowing composers, the term "coon" became entangled with the 'possum, also thought to be a preferred food source. Apparently, many composers were not very familiar with American wildlife and could not tell the difference. As a result, "coon" and "possum" were often used in the same context. The earliest use of the possum term in a song was in the 1830 work by Charles Matthews, A Possum Up A Tree. By the mid 19th century, coon and possum songs were a regular part of the musical scene, most often heard performed in minstrel shows.

[...]

In Vaudeville, coon songs also flourished and a rather odd performance convention emerged; white females became the favored deliverers and were called "coon shouters." Foremost among the coon shouters was one May Irwin. Her performance of the Charles Trevathan hit The Bully Song (1896) was influential in establishing the stereotype of the razor toting, jealously belligerent black male. Also, this song has perhaps the worst racist lyrics of any song I have seen for a while. Once this level of ugliness was reached, it seemed that composers piled it on higher and deeper. Other coon songs soon exploited every conceivable black characteristic, real or imagined, for its comic possibilities. African-American aspirations to a place in society, food preferences, the imagined inclination for crime, and gambling all were exploited. The final insult was a number of songs where there was an imagined desire by all African Americans to become white as in the song, She's Gettin' Mo' Like The White Folks Every Day.

Sadly, even black songwriters produced songs as fully demeaning of their own race as those by white composers. The worst of these was Ernest Hogan's All Coons Look Alike To Me. The most prolific of the black composers to join in was Bob Cole who wrote dozens of songs such as No Coons Allowed and I Wonder What The Coon's Game Is?

Just as with the earlier minstrel shows, skits, entertainers and entire shows were developed from the coon song and many coon songs found their way into the legitimate theater as a part of productions. Even the great John Philip Sousa's famous band popularized some of the melodies and performed a number of them both at home and abroad. One of Sousa's assistants, Arthur Pryor, even composed some coon songs himself to keep the supply coming to the band. At the peak of its popularity, the coon song was everywhere and just about every songwriter in the country worked to fill the seemingly insatiable demand.

In their time, coon songs spoke volumes about white attitudes towards African Americans. Unfortunately, in many cases they also spoke volumes about some black composers' sense of personal pride and self image. They are an historical document that clearly shows white attitudes and the terribly oppressive social world that African Americans had to cope with."...

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Excerpt #2
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coon_song#:~:text=Coon%20songs%20were%20a%20genre,identified%20with%20%22coon%22%20epithet.
"Coon songs were a genre of music that presented a stereotype of Africans. They were
popular in the United States and Australia from around 1880[1] to 1920,[2] though the earliest such songs date from minstrel shows as far back as 1848, when they were not yet identified with "coon" epithet.[3] The genre became extremely popular, with white and black men[4] giving performances in blackface and making recordings. Women known as coon shouters also gained popularity in the genre.[5] "

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LYRICS AND OTHER ONLINE COMMENTS ABOUT "UNCLE EPH'S GOT THE COON"

[Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.)

ONLINE SOURCE #1
From https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=9197

1.
Subject: Lyr Add: UNCLE EPH'S GOT THE COON
From: Nathan Sarvis
Date: 18 Feb 99 - 08:48 AM

Old Uncle Eph was a good old soul.
He washed his face in the butter bowl,
Bumped his head on the mantle piece,
And fell right into a bucket of grease.

(Chorus)

Uncle Eph's got the coon and gone on,
Gone on, gone on.
Uncle Eph's got the coon and gone on,
And left us lookin' up a tree.

Wake up, sister. Don't you sleep so late.
Keep your eye on the golden gate.
Get up and dance by the light of the moon.
See Uncle Eph come fetching in the coon.

What kind of slippers do the angels wear,
Slippin' and slidin' on the golden stairs?
Golden slippers and silver socks.
Drop your nickel in the missionary box.

When Ephraim told this world goodbye,
He went to heaven to his home on high,
Told Saint Peter to make room.
Here comes Ephraim, fetchin' in the coon."

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2.
Subject: RE: Uncle Ef's Got the Coon
From: Joshua Newman
Date: 23 Feb 99 - 03:21 PM

"This sounds very like "Brother Ephus," which I believe Jody Stecher recorded ... though now that I've looked, I see I claimed to have learned it from Hedy West (what has become of Hedy West?)...

CHO: Where you going, Moses None of your business Come here, Moses Ain't gonna do it Brother Ephus got a coon and gone on, gone on, gone on Brother Ephus got a coon and gone on Left me barking up a tree

If you search for "Brother Ephus" in the Digital Tradition you'll find it."
-snip-
"Digital Tradition" (also given as "Digital Tradition Index" and "DT" is an archve of lyrics for (mostly) American folk music that is "housed" on the Mudcat Folk Music Forum website.

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3. 
Subject: Lyr Add: UNCLE REUBEN GOT A COON
From: Joe_F
Date: 22 Mar 03 - 07:17 PM

"Possibly related, tho very different after the first stanza:

"UNCLE REUBEN GOT A COON"

on "Tom Glazer, Richard Dyer-Bennett Sing Olden Ballads"

REFRAIN:

Uncle Reuben got a coon, done gone, chck-a-chck,
Done gone, chck-a-chck, done gone, chck-a-chck,
Uncle Reuben got a coon, done gone, chck-a-chck,
And left me here behind.

Possum on the simmon tree, raccoon on the ground,
Possum say "Mr Raccoon, won't you shake one simmon down.

If you love me, Liza Jane, put your hand in mine.
You won't lack for no corn bread as long as the sun do shine."

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4. 
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Uncle Ef's Got the Coon
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 16 Aug 03 - 02:20 PM

"Both songs are put together from "Brother Eben's Got a Coon," and verses borrowed of parodied from a number of other songs. A Negro folk song version was collected in 1909 by Perrow. The Traditional ballad Index refers to a song from 1878 by Bob Allen, "Old Uncle Eph."

Uncle Eph'm got de coon and gone on, gone on, gone on,
Uncle Eph'm got the coon and gone on,
And left me wathing up de tree.

Newman I White, in American Negro Folk-Songs, 1928 (1965 reprint) says Perrow has this refrain after a stanza that has antecedents in old minstrel books, so the blackface minstrels may have been the source of the song. (White, # 37, p. 223)

Scarborough, 1925, found the same refrain, also in combination with old minstrel songs from the 1840s-1850s:

Brother Eben's got a coon,
And gone on, gone on,
Brother Eban's got a coon,
And gone on, gone on.

OLd Dan Tucker, Possum Up a Gum Stump, Liza Jane. Shake dem 'Simmons and a parody of Golden Slippers also have contributed.

The Traditional Ballad Index, cufresno, lists some recordings."

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5.
Subject: Lyr Add: UNCLE EPHRAIM GOT DE COON
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 08:44 AM

From "Songs and Rhymes from the South" by E. C. Perrow, in The Journal of American Folk-Lore, Vol. 26 (Lancaster, Pa.: American Folk-Lore Society, 1913), page 158:

32. UNCLE EPHRAIM GOT DE COON

(From Mississippi; negroes; MS. of R. J. Slay; 19x19)

[1] As I was coming through my field,
A black snake bit me on de heel;
Dey carried me home, and laid me on de bed;
De ole folks said, "Dat n---er* is dead."

[CHORUS] Uncle Eph'm got de coon and gone on, gone on, gone on,
Uncle Eph'm got de coon and gone on,
And left me watching up de tree.

[2] What kind of shoes did de angels wear,
Slipping and sliding through de air?
A great big shoe and a gov'mint sox:
Just drap all de money in de missionary-box."
-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out in these lyrics.

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6. 
Subject: Lyr Add: BROTHER EPHRUM GOT DE COON AND GONE ON
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 01:56 PM

From On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs by Dorothy Scarborough (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1925), page 101:

An old song given me by Joseph A. Turner, of Hollins, Virginia, mentions a crude banjo. The music to this was written down for me by Ruth Hibbard, of Hollins College.

BROTHER EPHRUM GOT DE COON AND GONE ON

1. I went down to my pea-patch
To see if my ole hen had hatch.
Ole hen hatch and tellin' of her dream,
And de little chickens pickin' on de tambourine.

CHORUS: Brother Ephrum got de coon and gone on, and gone on, and gone on.
Brother Ephrum got de coon and gone on
And left me here behind.

2. I see a rabbit a-runnin' down de fiel';
I say, "Mister Rebbit, whar you gwine?"
She say, "I ain't got no time for to fool wid you,
Dar's a white man comin' on behind."

3. Marsa bought a yaller gal,
He brought her right from de South,
And de hayr on her head was wrop so tight
Dat de sun shone in her mouth.

4. Lips jes' like a cherry,
Cheeks jes' like a rose.
How I loves dat yaller gal
Lord Almighty knows!

5. I had a little banjo
De strings was made of twine,
And de only tune dat I could play
Was, I wish dat gal was mine!"
-snip-
“Yaller girl” (“yellow girl”) means a light skinned Black girl.

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7. 
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Uncle Eph's Got the Coon
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Mar 18 - 04:20 PM

I remember learning this from a radio programme for schools as Uncle Reuben - it was probably the Singing Together programme, mentioned on other threads.

The melody was a hash together of one old-time tune for the verse with the chorus tune being closer to the more familiar Uncle Eph melody.

The song also contained a verse from a completely different song:

Raccoon's got a bushy tail;
Possum tail is bare.
Rabbit's got no tail at all,
But a little bunch of hair."...

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