Edited by Azizi Powell
Latest update- August 15, 2026
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/07/blog-post.html for Part I of this pancocojams series. That post presents a general overview of this song.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/08/sam-chatmons-versions-of-whoa-mule-cant.html for Part IV of this pancocojams series. That post showcases a YouTube video of Sam Chatmon singing "Can't Get The Saddle On The Old Gray Mule". That post also presents information about Sam Chatmon and two of his versions of that song.
****
The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, socio-cultural, and recreational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the unknown composers of this song. Thanks to Celina Lewis, Bessie Jones, Sam Chatmon, and others whose renditions and comments about this song are documented offline and online. Thanks also to the folklorists who collected & recorded this song.
****
EXAMPLES OF WHOA MULE (CAN'T GET THE SADDLE ON)
(The numbers assigned to these examples continue from Part I of this series).
Example #3:
From Bessie Jones and Bess Lomax Hawes Step It Down, Games, Plays, Songs & Stories from the Afro-American Heritage University of Georgia Press, 1972; p. 214.
Peep Squirrel
Ya di da di deedy dum
Peep Squirrel
Ya di da di deedy dum
Hop Squirrel
Ya di da di deedy dum
(each line is repeated as above)
Run Squirrel
Come here, mule.
Whoa, mule
I can’t get the saddle on.
Hold that mule,
I can’t get the saddle on.
Go that mule
I can’t get the saddle on.
Go that mule
Ya di da di deedy dum, a
Ya di da di deedy dum, dum!
-snip-
Comment written by Bess Lomax Hawes:
“You can sing “Peep Squirrel” while the children dance, or while you’re bouncing a child on your knees; or at a slower pace, it makes a fine song for a tired baby and a warm lap and a rocking chair. Mrs. Jones said that the “Ya di da di deedy dum” is the sound of the squirrel’s feet scuffling in the leaves"...
-snip-
The Cd Put Your Hand on Your Hip and Let Your Backbone Slip includes a recording of Bessie Jones singing "Peep Squirrel".
http://www.last.fm/music/Bessie+Jones/_/Peep+Squirrel
The length of that song is given as 2:32.
A 30 second mp3 sample is provided on that website. That sample is a recording of Bessie Jones explaining why the mule is including in the "Peep Squirrel" song. My summary of her comments is that a man trying to get a mule to catch a squirrel, but he’s too little to put the saddle on the mule and the saddle was too heavy.
****
Example #4
From Harold Courlander Negro Folk Music U.S.A, Courier Dover Publications, 1963, p. 160 [Google Books]
Whoa Mule Can’t Get The Saddle On
“One song taken from an elderly informant was described as “as real grown up playparty”. Other than that it was “a kind of wild game that could get you thrown out of church”, no no information was given about the activity that accompanied the song.
Whoa mule Can’t Get The Saddle On (2x)
Stop that mule Can’t Get The Saddle On (2x)
Whoa mule Can’t Get The Saddle On(2x)
Run mule Can’t Get The Saddle On (2x)
Catch that mule Can’t Get The Saddle On (4x)
You go that mule Can’t Get The Saddle On
Go that mule Can’t Get The Saddle On
-snip-
Speculation about the risque nature of the performance of "Whoa Mule: Saddle" is given in the Addendum below.
****
ADDENDUM
Example #2 (in Part I of this series) and Example #4 (above) allude to people labeling the way that "Whoa Mule:Saddle" was performed as being risque (sexually suggestive). Example #4 indicates that if the "wild" behavior that adults did while singing that song were known- it would get them thrown out of their church. It seems likely that that performance activity verged on sexualized horse play. Perhaps the men and women couples did piggyback rides when they sung "Ride the mule". Unless there is more documentation out there, we'll never know what was so risque about the movements that were done while singing that song that before singing her version (Example #2) Celina Hall had to basically tell church people to mind their own business.
I don't think that "Peep Squirel" or "Whoa Mule. Can't Get The Saddle On" are still being sung or played by children or by adults since at least around the mid 1960s. However, I'm intrigued by the possibility that the circle game song "Here We Go Ride That Pony" may be an updated version of one or both of these songs.
The earliest online example of the singing game "Ride That Pony" in the United States that I've come across s of August 9, 2026 is from 2006. Unfortunately, the YouTube video of this game song that was published in 2006 is no longer available.
i have also come across several YouTube videos and one (word only) post about "Ride That Pony" performed as a children's singing game in Jamaica and in the Virgin islands. [A pancocojams post on these examples will be published ASAP and the link to that post will be added here.]
I'm not sayind that the performance activities of either of those 19th century songs are the same as the performance activity of "Ride That Pony". But all three of those songs include references to players doing specific movements such as running, chasing, trying to catch something or someone, trying to put a saddle on a pony (or on someone who represents a pony), and/or dancing in front of, back to back with someone, or besides someone else.
-snip-
The original Addendum for this 2013 post included information about and an example of the 21st century singing game "Ride That Pony". That portion of that Addendum will be added to a pancocojams post about sexualized And sexualizing children's singing games. The link to that post will be added here when it is published.
****
This concludes Part II of this pancocojams series.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment