Bessie Jones - Topic, Nov 7, 2014
Provided to YouTube by Rhino Atlantic
Sometimes · Bessie Jones
Sounds Of The South [album]
The Alan Lomax collection album Sounds of the South was first released on vinyl in 1960 by Atlantic Records (catalog number 1346).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7Y-6kmFtsg****
Edited by Azizi Powell
[This is a complete reprint of an updated version of a pancocojams post that was originally published in 2025.
That post is still found in this pancocojams blog with one comment from me in which I share that the ring game "Sometimes" as described by Bessie Jones reminds me a of the contemporary circle game "Little Sally Walker, Walking Down The Street".]
This pancocojams post is divided into two parts.
Part I presents the lyrics and movements for the song "Sometimes" as it is presented as a children's game song in the book Step It Down by Bessie Jones and Bess Lomax Hawes.
Part II also presents explanations for some of the lyrics in that song.
Part II presents information/examples about call & response songs/rhymes with one of three types of responses: fixed responses, echo responses, or changing responses. The song "Sometimes" is an example of a composition with a fixed response.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, and educational purposes.
Thanks to the unknown composer of this song and thanks to Bessie Jones and the other singers in this recording for their musical legacy. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this song file on YouTube.
****
PART I
LYRICS - "SOMETIMES"
(as sung by Bessie Jones)
Online source- https://genius.com/Bessie-jones-sometimes-lyrics
Below the log,
Bullfrog marry,
His mother-in-law,
Now let’s get on the board,
I’m going to ball that Jack,
Until my honey comes home,
I want to rear back jack,
And get a hump in my back,
I’m going over here,
Going get my pal,
(About this song from that same genius.com page)
The song was prominently sampled in “Honey” by Moby, the lead single from his 1999 album Play.
Moby’s “Honey” was also featured in the 2003 American film Holes soundtrack."
-snip-
The song "Sometimes" is presented as a children's ring play (a singing game) in the 1972 book of African American (Gullah) children's songs and ring plays entitled Step It Down.
Page 101 of that book includes a musical score and this statement:
"New words and new music adaptation by Bessie Jones, collected and edited with additional new material by Alan Lomax TRO @copyright 1972 Ludlow Music Inc, New York, N. Y used with permission."
****
LYRICS AND PERFORMANCE ACTIVITIES FOR THE SONG "SOMETIMES"
from the book Step It Down: Games, Plays, Songs & Stories from the Afro-American Heritage, edited by Bessie Jones and Bess Lomax Hawes (published 1972, page 100-101)*
"In this ring play, an account of the doings of magical animals and the courtship feats of human beings is continually punctured by the performers' sardonic remark "Sometimes". The tune, when sung and slapped with strong rhythm, will give you an idea of how interesting only four notes can be.
FORM: Ring [circle] of players, not holding hands, one center player.
Lead Voice Chorus Voice Action
Way down yonder Sometimes Center player walks (struts) around the ring
Below the log Sometimes
Wild geese are holl'ring. Sometimes
Ganders trot, Sometimes
Bullfrog marry, Sometimes
His mother-in-law, Sometimes.
Now let's get on board, Sometimes Center player stands in front of a chosen partner
I'm going to ball that jack, Sometimes Center player balls the jack **
Until my honey comes back, Sometimes
I want to rear back, Jack, Sometimes Center player (and partner) lean back
And get a hump in my back, Sometimes Center player (and partner) hunch shoulders
I'm going over here, Sometimes Center player takes partner's hand and turns her into center of the circle,
Goin' to get my pal. Sometimes taking her place in the ring. Play continues
with the new center person"
Source:
*Page 101 of the 1972 book "Step It Down" by Bessie Jones and Bess Lomax Hawes.
****
EXPLANATIONS FOR SOME OF THESE LYRICS
"Way down yonder" = This is a (Southern) African American originated Vernacular English phrase that means something like "a place that is far away from here".
**
Below the log = in the farmyard [below (or beyond) the house or the house's porch] [?]
**
Ganders trot = male goose walking around
**
"Bullfrog marrying his mother-in-law" is a reference to the 16th century English folk song "Frog Went A Courting".
**
"Now let's get on board" -These words indicates a new phase of this ring (circle) game in which the center person stands in front of a person who she or he dances in front of (and that person also performs the same dances.) That person eventually becomes the new center person
**
"ball the jack" is the name of an African American social dance that was first popularized in 1912 or 1913. Here's information about the term "balling the jack" from https://www.americanbluesscene.com/2012/08/the-language-blues-balling-the-jack/ "The Language of the Blues: Balling The Jack" by Debra DeviAugust 17, 2012
"Back when steam-driven locomotives criss-crossed the land, when a conductor got a train cranked up to top speed, he was said to be balling the jack. As in “they were balling the jack at the time of the wreck.”
The train was the jack–short for “the jackass carrying the load.” To “ball” meant to go flat out, and came from the railman’s balled-up fist – his signal to the crew to pour on the coal and speed up.
By the 1920s, the expression “balling the jack” had leapt from the rail yards into the popular lexicon as an expression for any wild, all-out effort–from dancing to sex to, for gamblers, risking everything on a single toss of the dice. Shortened to “balling,” it came to mean having a wild time in and out of bed.
The phrase was given a push by the Balling the Jack fad, which reportedly began as a sexy juke joint dance involving plenty of bumping and grinding. It evolved into a group dance “involving vigorous hand clapping and chanting or singing,” according to From Juba to Jive, by Clarence Major.
A variation was performed in 1913 at the Lafayette Theater in Harlem in a play called “The Darktown Follies”. Theatrical producer Florence Ziegfeld caught the play and liked the dance so much that he bought the rights to it for his Follies of 1913. Chris Smith (music) and James Henry Burris (lyrics) wrote “Balling the Jack” for the Follies based on the African American ragtime tune.
The Balling the Jack craze swept white America, eventually getting mixed in with the Lindy Hop to become a popular swing step. Judy Garland and Gene Kelly performed the Smith/Burris version of “Balling the Jack” in the 1942 film, Me and My Gal."...
**
Here's a description of "Ball the Jack" (from Step It Down, pages 44-45)
[The dancer] "Hold[s] the legs together from foot to hip, rotate the knees in a circle, this obviously rotates the hips also; Mrs. Jones seemed to feel this was mildly improper for small children-the sort of thing that you should tell them not to do, but you know they are going to do it anyway."
-snip-
end of quotes
[return to explanation of lyrics]
Rear back, Jack" - refers to how the person dances: to suddenly lean back; [In the context of those lyrics, the name "Jack" is used as a general referent for a male or a female.]
"Get a hump in my back' - refers to how the person dances: dancer bends his or her back which means their butt protrudes [This was/is considered "dancing nasty" and is the same as or very similar to the dance move that is now called "twerking".]
**
The rest of these lyrics are explained in the directions quote from that Step it Down book.
****
PART II.
WHAT DOES "CALL & RESPONSE" MEAN IN SONGS & CHANTS?
From https://www.twinkl.com/teaching-wiki/call-and-response-music "What Is Call & Response Music?"
"In music, a call and response is a series of two parts usually played or sung by different musicians. The second part is heard as a comment about or an answer to what the first has sung."
INFORMATION ABOUT THREE TYPES OF CALL & RESPONSE SONGS & CHANTS
Here's information about three types of call & response patterns based on the nature of the responses:
1. "Echo" responses (usually referred to as "Echo songs")
In echo songs, the leader (caller) sings or says a passage (a word, phrase, or a short line and the group responds by exactly repeating (echoing) what the leader sang or said (with the same tune , tempo, and inflections i.e. They sing or say the same way the leader sang or said it.)
A familiar example of an echo children's song is "Row Row Row Your Boat".
An example of a R&B song that includes an echo portion is is James Brown's R&B hit song "Say It Loud-I'm Black And I'm Proud". In some portions of that song James Brown (the lead/the caller) commands the group to "Say It Loud" and the group always sings (responds with) the words "I'm Black And I'm Proud".
**
2. Fixed (unchanged) responses
In fixed (unchanged) responses, the leader (call) changes, but the group (response) remains the same throughout the entire song or throughout a portion of the song (In another portion of the song, the group (response) may sing or chant another passage (word or phrase) that then remains fixed (unchanged) for a time or for the rest of the song.
The song "Sometimes". is an example of a song in which the leader changes what she or he sings or says, but the group's response remains fixed (unchanged).
**
3. Changed responses
In some songs and chants that include call & response or entirely consist of call & response, the responses change and the call may also change.
Here's an example of an American military cadence in which the calls change and their responses change :
from https://www.bbcmaestro.com/blog/what-is-call-and-response-in-music
" The traditional army chant “My Granny” uses a call-and-response structure:
Call: “When my granny was 91”
Response: “She did PT just for fun.”
Call: “When my granny was 92”
Response: “She did PT better than you.”
Call: “When my granny was 93”
Response: “She did PT better than me"
****
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1. Azizi Powell, March 3, 2016 at 3:53 PM
"I focused on the 1957-1964 television series The Buddy Deane Show in part because I'm interested in documenting old school African American originated line dances, and the Buddy Deane Show's 1958 or 1959 clip of The Madison appears to be the earliest surviving film of that dance.
I believe that The Buddy Deane Show is important in part because it documents aspects of Americana such as the way the teenagers (or at least White teenagers] in the late 1950s and early 1960s dressed, danced, interacted, and also documented (through retrospective interviews such as the one quoted in Excerpt #2 of this post) attitudes and values of that time. For example, consider the comments of members of the "Committee" [the regularly featured White teenagers on that show] about boys having it worse than girls because boys weren't supposed to dance. I wonder if that applied to Black males as well as White males. Also, read the comments in that same excerpt about the series only wanting "attractive" teenagers as featured dancers. There are other socio-cultural comments in various YouTube comments threads about the Madison dance. I'll include some of those comments in an upcoming pancocojams series about that dance.
However, it seems to me that The Buddy Deane Show is more important because it exemplifies the need to go back and understand how the past has influenced the present with regard to systemic racism in Baltimore, Maryland and elsewhere in the United States.
That's one of the things that the Black Lives Matter movement is talking about. It's not just about police brutality."
**
2. Unknown, October 18, 2016 at 12:56 AM
"It was very interesting to see my conversation quoted in this article. Thank you for including me as one of the Buddy Dean family. In my on-going search for African American footage I stumbled across this article in Google. I still believe that footage is out there somewhere. MPT did a segment which included interviews with former African American dancers who appeared on the show. The information used was obtained from WJZ. Checking back with the studio, no one had information concerning footage of African American dancers. It would be a treasure to pass down to my future generations. I am here and on FB as well as NOBLE BRUN in the event the footage can be located. I graduated from an HBCU, lived through racism, marched on Washington with Martin Luther King, and was active in fighting injustices in Baltimore County at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Racism is passed down from one generation to the next. No matter how progressive we become, there will always be those who will still hang on to the tradition of hate. My parents didn't talk much about racism, and as a result I grew up learning to love everybody. When I became of age to understand it all I became motivated to make a difference.
**
Reply
3. Unknown, October 19, 2016 at 10:15 AM
"As you can see from the December thread my question concerning African Americans was totally dismissed by the Committee member who was speaking. So there you have it. Some fifty years later, the mindset is STILL the same. I'm sure they could have reached out to me via these posts, but did not. GOD HELP US!"
**
Reply
4. Anonymous, September 19, 2024 at 12:55 AM
"What was the name of the black group of girls, who won a contest on Buddy Deane Show."
**
Reply
5. Azizi Powell, September 19, 2024 at 5:52 AM
"Hello, Anonymous. I don't know the answer to your question. Hopefully, someone reading this will respond with that information.
I google searched your question and the AI (Artificial Intelligence) response was that no information was known, but shared some info regarding the Buddy Deane Show itself.
Also, as a result of reading your question, the link to this 1985 article came up:
<a href="https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/artsentertainment/john-waters-on-keeping-the-memory-of-the-buddy-deane-show-alive/">https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/artsentertainment/john-waters-on-keeping-the-memory-of-the-buddy-deane-show-alive</a> "Ladies And Gentlemen...The Nicest Kids In Town: Keeping the memory of The Buddy Deane Show alive." by John Waters
[comment continued below]
Reply
6.
"Here's the portion of that above cited article that focuses on integration and the Buddy Deane Show:
..."There was a change in the works.”
Part of that change was the racial integration movement. ”I had a lot of black friends at the time, so for me this was an awkward thing,” says Marie. “To this day, I’m reluctant to tell some of my black friends I was on Buddy Deane because they look at it as a terrible time.”
Integration ended The Buddy Deane Show. When the subject comes up today, most loyalists want to go off the record. But it went something like this: Buddy Deane was an exclusively white show. Once a month the show was all black; there was no black Committee. So the NAACP targeted the show for protests. Ironically, The Buddy Deane Show introduced black music and artists into the lives of white Baltimore teenagers, many of whom learned to dance from black friends and listened to black radio. Buddy offered to have three or even four days a week all black, but that wasn’t it. The protesters wanted the races to mix.
At frantic meetings of the Committee, many said, “My parents simply won’t let me come if it’s integrated,” and WJZ realized it just couldn’t be done. “It was the times,” most remember. “This town just wasn’t ready for that.” There were threats and bomb scares; integrationists smuggled whites into the all-black shows to dance cheek to cheek on camera with blacks, and that was it. The Buddy Deane Show was over. Buddy wanted it to end happily, but WJZ angered Deaners when it tried to blame the ratings.
On the last day of the show, January 4, 1964, all the most popular Committee members through the years came back for one last appearance."...
**
Reply
7. Azizi Powell, September 19, 2024 at 6:04 AM
"Here's another excerpt from that above cited 1985 John Waters "Ladies And Gentlemen...The Nicest Kids In Town": article:
"You learned how to be a teenager from the show. Every day after school kids would run home, tune in, and dance with the bedpost or refrigerator door as they watched. If you couldn’t do the Buddy Dean jitterbug, (always identifiable by the girl’s ever-so-subtle dip of her head each time she was twirled around), you were a social outcast. And because a new dance was introduced practically every week, you had to watch every day to keep up. It was maddening: the Mashed Potatoes, the Stroll, the Pony, the Waddle, the Locomotion, the Bug, the Handjive, the New Continental, and, most important, the Madison, a complicated line dance that started here and later swept the country.".
end of quote
All those dance names that are mentioned are African American originated dances.
I'll repeat this sentence that I already quoted above from that article:
"The Buddy Deane Show introduced black music and artists into the lives of white Baltimore teenagers, many of whom learned to dance from black friends and listened to black radio".
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