“Alabama Gal”, "This A Way Valerie", & "Here We Go Zoodio": Three Examples Of Children's Singing Games That Are Modeled After Longways Sets (Contra Dancing)

Big Tie Music, Nov 2, 2022

This video features a group of third graders taught by William C Doublestein at Boone Meadow Elementary.  "Alabama Gal" can be found in The New England Dancing Masters book/album by the same title, available here: https://dancingmasters.com/product/alabama-gal-nine-never-fail-dancing-and-singing-games-for-children/ ....

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post showcases a YouTube video example & word only example of three American singing games that are modeled after or are forms of a sub-category of folk dancing called "Longways sets" (also known as "Contra dancing").  

Those showcased singing games are "Alabama Gal", "This A Way, Valerie" ("also known as "Strut Miss Lucy", "Strut Miss Susie", "This A Way Willowbee"), and "Zoodio" (also known as "Zudio" and "Zodiac"). 

This post also includes brief information about and a hyperlink to a pancocojams post about Longways sets (Contra dancing) as well as hyperlinks to some pancocojams posts about those specific singing games.

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

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are featured in videos that are embedded in this posts and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.

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WHAT IS LONGWAYS SETS (CONTRA DANCING)? 
From https://dancingmasters.com/dances-in-longways-sets/ Dances In Longways Sets
by New England Dancing Masters (created as an "Online Resources for Teachers (Covid 19)", retrieved Nov. 20, 2023
..."A longways set is comprised of two lines of dancers facing each other. Each dancer stands across from their partner. Traditionally, the ‘gents’ are in the right hand line, the ‘ladies’ in the left hand line. ... Each time through the dance the top couple progresses to the bottom of the set while the other couples move up one place. The dance is then repeated with the new top couple."...
-end of quote-
The "Virginia Reel" is probably the most well known example of a longways set (Contra dance) in the United States.

Traditionally, longways sets (contra dances) are performed to live music. Originally these dances didn't have a caller who spoke or sung dancing directions and more than one tune could be used for a certain dance. However, it appears that longways set children's games are almost always performed to recorded music/singing and each of these singing games are only performed to a specific song.

[Additions and corrections are welcome.]
 
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INFORMATION ABOUT "ALABAMA GAL"
The first video in this pancocojams post is an example of "Alabama Gal". "Alabama" is a state in the Southern region of the United States.

The history of "Alabama Gal" is associated with the earlier more well known song "Buffalo Gals". As Julian David Byrson put it in his online article https://www.julianbryson.com/journal/2017/8/2/alabama-gal  "the history of the Alabama Gal tune is complicated and deserves further scrutiny. It was associated with minstrel shows, though there is some evidence that the tune and lyrics predate this usage.".

Click https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2020/08/buffalo-gals-revisited-2/?loclr=blogflt for a 2020 article by Stephanie Hall that is entitled "Who Were Those Gals? “Buffalo Gals” Revisited. The link for Stephanie Hall's 2014 article about "Buffalo Gals" is included in that 2020 article.

An earlist [?] title for "Alabama Gals" is "Go through And Hurry (also given as "Come Through In A Hurry"). JacobB, a commenter in 2000 on the discussion thread about 1800 play party songs shared the lyrics for "Go through in a hurry" and they're basically the same lyrics for "Alabama Gal":

https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=21232

"GO THROUGH AND HURRY

Four couple longways sets

(First couple sashay down) Go through and hurry, go through and hurry
(First couple sashay back) Go through and hurry, my Alabama gal
(1st couple allemande R once and a half) You don't know how, girl. You don't know how, girl.
(1st couple allem. L twice with 2nd couple) You don't know how, girl, my Alabama gal
(1st couple allem. R twice around) I'll show you how, girl. I'll show you how, girl.
(1st couple allem. L twice with 3rd couple) I'll show you how, girl, my Alabama gal
(1st couple allem. R twice around) Ain't I rock candy, ain't I rock candy.
(1st couple allem. L twice with 4th couple) Ain't I rock candy, my Alabama gal
(Original top couple retires to their own side of set,
new top couple starts the dance)

I have also seen this dance described as being done in longways sets for as many as will, with the top couple doing an elbow reel all the way down, and the new top couple starting the dance when "Go through and hurry" comes around in the lyrics, even though there are other couples who are still in the process of doing the elbow reel."
-end of quote from that Mudcat discussion thread-
-snip-
"allem" = "allemande"; as in the dance direction "allemande left" = "(square dance) [a] Move in which two facing dancers take left hands or forearms, turn halfway around to the left, let go, and step forward."
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/allemande_left

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The formation and movements for the "Alabama Gal" singing game appear to be quite fixed. I haven't come across any video where that game is performed any different from the example that is shown in this video other than that in the United States what are designated as the top and the bottom of the two rows are opposite the positions that they are designated in longwards sets (Contra dancing). 

That means that the first couple (or the first person) who goes through the space between the two rows is different depending on what you consider the top or the bottom of the rows. As shown in the Alabama Gal video in this pancocojams post, in the United States, the first couple to dance is the couple who are the standing where we would call the top of those two rows. That couple dances down the alley (i.e. the middle space between those rows).   However, in longwards sets (contra dancing), the top of the row is where we would consider the bottom. The couple therefore dances up the middle space to reach the top.

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 A WORD ONLY EXAMPLE OF "ALABAMA GAL" WITH DIRECTIONS

Lyrics

Come through ‘n a hurry (repeat twice)
Alabama Gal

I don’t know how, how…

I’ll show you how, how…

Ain’t I rock candy…

Dance

Formation: Students form two lines facing each other.

Verse 1: Head couple join hands and sashay down between the two lines, then return back where they started.

Verses 2-4: All students turn to face the head couple. The head person on the left turns left, and the head person on the right turns right with all of the students following around. They walk toward the foot of the line. When the head couple reaches the foot of the line, they join hands high over their heads, and the other couples go underneath and return to their original spots. There is now a new head couple and the dance begins again.

Optional: This can be danced like the Virginia Reel. (See instructions.)"

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PANCOCOJAMS HYPERLINKS FOR "ALABAMA GAL"
https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/02/examples-of-play-party-song-alabama-gal.html

"Alabama Gal" (Play-Party Song) videos and lyrics

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https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/04/five-examples-of-american-play-party.html

Five Examples Of The American Play Party Song "Alabama Gal" (with videos, lyrics, information, & instructions)

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"THIS A WAY VALERIE" (also known as "Strut Miss Lucy", "Strut Miss Lizzy", Here We Go Willowby")

SHOWCASE VIDEO: Pizza Pizza Daddy-O



Folkstreamer, August 3, 2006
-snip-
This very brief example of "This  A Way Valerie" is found at .20 in this 1967 film of African American girls playing in a Los Angeles, California playground.
 
The hyperlink for a pancocojams post on this singing game includes longer examples. However, none of those examples show the players strutting.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THIS SINGING GAME
Here are the titles for singing games in this "family" (given in no particular order)
-Strut Miss Lizzie
-Strut Miss Lucy
-Strut Miss (use another female name)
-This A Way Valerie
-This Is The Way To Willowby
-snip-
There are probably other titles for singing games in this family.

There's no doubt that the "Strut Miss Lizzie" singing game was inspired by the 1920 Jazz song with that titled that was composed by African Americans Henry Creamer and Turner Layton. As such, the title "Strut Miss Lizzie" is probably the oldest title for this singing game. 

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/04/strut-miss-lizzie-information-lyrics.html for a pancocojams post on that song. 

According to Step It Down, a 1979 book of Gullah (African American) children's singing games edited by Bessie Smith and Bess Lomax Hawes, Bessie Jones remembers "Zudio-O" from her childhood (in the very early 20th century).

Some of 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). Furthermore, the "Strut Miss Lizzie" singing games and the "Zoodio" singing games that I have directly experienced and/or found online use the "Shortnin' Bread" tune.

Given the similarities between the "Zudio" and the "Strut Miss Lizzie" singing games, it can conclusively be said that "Stut Miss Lizzie" singing games borrowed from "Zudio" singing games and not the other way around.

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WORDS TO "THIS A WAY VALERIE" (AND OTHER TITLES) SINGING GAMES
Almost all the examples of "This A Way Valerie" (and other titles) that are found online are the same. Here are those words from http://www.scoutsongs.com/lyrics/thiswayvalerie.html (with performance instructions)
"This Way Valerie

"This game works best with a fairly large group. You will need to have the girls get a buddy and then form 2 lines with the buddies facing each other. As soon as you have them in 2 straight lines they can start singing the song:

This way Valerie, That way Valerie,
This way Valerie all the way home.

Girls join hands with their buddy and sing this part while moving arms in a sawing motion - back and forth

Strut Miss Lucy, strut Miss Lucy,
Strut Miss Lucy all the way home.

Head girl in one line passes between the 2 lines making up any movement she wishes and falls in at the foot of the opposite line

Here comes another one just like the other one.
Here comes another one all the way home.

Buddy of the previous girl copies the movements just done by her buddy as she passes between the 2 lines and then joins the foot of the opposite line.

Both lines move up a wee bit and repeat the song over and over and over again until everyone has had a turn. The girls will eventually start getting quite creative in their actions if you play this many times."
-snip-
In the United States some Girl Scout troops have "adopted" certain singing games as "Girl Scout" songs to be taught and performed during their troops' sessions.  This has greatly contributed to the survival of these singing games in the United States and elsewhere throughout the world (since videos and word only examples of those songs have been published online).

These directions indicate that the girl can "make up any movement she wishes". However, originally as given in the titles "Strut Miss ___", the girl moving down (or up depending on how you look at it) the space in between the two rows was supposed to 'strut". However, I found during my work with mostly African American girls in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area in the 1990s that girls don't know what "strutting" means. 

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My guess is that the "Here comes another one" verse is an extension verse that was added on at some point after the core verses were composed but before the part that I refer to as "extension verses".

I've come across an example of this singing game from the Bahamas that includes some add on verses a such as "front, back /side to side". That example is found in the first hyperlink for pancocojams post that is given immediately below.

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PANCOCOJAMS HYPERLINK FOR "THIS A WAY VALERIE" (and other titles)

https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/04/this-way-valerie-strut-miss-lucy-strut.html "This A Way Valerie" ("Strut Miss Lucy", "Strut Miss Susie", "This A Way Willowbee") Singing Games

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"HERE WE GO ZOODIO" (and similar titles)

VIDEO EXAMPLE -Zoodio

 

 Lotties Flock, August 2, 2009

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INFORMATION ABOUT "HERE WE GO ZOODIO"
Here we go "Zoodio" is an African American children's singing game that is performed as a longways set (contra dance). 
 
As noted above in the section of "This A Way Valerie", African American singer and folklorist Bessie Jones who was born in 1901 remembers this singing game from her childhood in Georgia.

I remember learning a version of "Zoodio" in the mid 1950s in vacation Bible School in Atlantic City, New Jersey. My teacher, Mrs Owens shared that she played this game when she was growing up in North Carolina. The version that I learned ended with the second time that the group sang the lines "Walkin' down the alley/all night long".   

The tune for "Zoodio" singing games is basically fixed and has a moderate tempo. Those singing games use the same tune for "Shortnin' Bread". That said, notice how the people in the video given above slightly change the tune to make it "funkier".

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WORDS FOR AN EXAMPLE OF A "ZOODIO" SINGING GAME

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'.
- 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]
-snip-
"si" is a shortened form of the word "side".

This example doesn't include the following line that usually precedes the "Oh" (or "And") what did I see" line: "I looked over yonder and what did I see".
-snip-
That line probably has its source in the "I looked over Jordan and what did I see" lyrics in "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" Spiritual.

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HYPERLINKS TO PANCOCOJAMS POSTS ABOUT "ZOODIO" SINGING GAMES

 https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/05/here-we-go-zoodio-zudie-o-zudiozodiac.html 
"Here We Go Zoodio" ("Zudie-O", "Zudio","Zodiac") - Part I (Words To Various Versions)

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

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