Edited by Azizi Powell
This post provides information about the African American game song "Knock Jim Crow" and the minstrel song & dance "Jump Jim Crow" that was adapted from it.
The content of this post is provided for folkloric, historical, and cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the composers and performers of "Knock Jim Crow" and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
****
COMMENTS, LYRICS, AND DANCE INSTRUCTIONS FOR "KNOCK JIM CROW"
From Step It Dowm: Games, Plays, Songs & Stories from the Afro-American Heritage by Bessie Jones and Bess Lomax Hawes (The University of Georgia Press, 1972), pp. 55-57
Bessie Jones: “When I was a little girl, I thought Jim Crow might have been a bird, because it was “going down to the new ground”, and they always shoot them birds out of the corn. “New ground” is ground where the trees have been cut off, but it’s never been planted in. So that was what I understood at the time, that was my idea. But we don’t know what the old folks meant, we sure don’t.”
John Davis: “ I don’t believe that the old folks knew what they were talking about their ownselves. Anyway they didn’t tell nobody”...
“Jim Crow” developed from a dance imitating the motions of birds and hunters, and quite possibly magical in nature, into a commercial caricature. No wonder the term, when used in a political context, has a bitter taste today. The Islanders, however, clearly regard this as a pleasurable dance, probably about birds, and “knock Jim Crow” with enthusiasm and alacrity.
FORM: Indefinite; group of children standing in a line of ring. There may be a lead singer or the children may all sing together.
Lead and Group Voice
Where you going, buzzard?
Where you going, crow?
I’m going down to the new ground
To knock Jim Crow
Up to my kneecap
Down to my toe,
And every time I jump up
I knock Jim Crow.
(Speed increases)
I knock.
I knock Jim Crow.
I knock.
I knock Jim Crow.
I knock, knock,
I knoc Jim Crown.
(repeat ad lib).
Action
Step on the right foot, raise left leg with knee straight (like a high goose step)
and clap hands together around it; repeat raising alternate legs until
On to, raise right knee (bent) and slap it with right hand.
On cap raise left knee (bent), and slap it with left hands.
On to point down to ground with right index finger.
On beat after “toe” point down to ground with left index finger.
Resume raising alternate legs and clapping around them as in first step.
Dancers increase speed, continuing to lift legs and clap while turning round in place until exhaustion sets in.
Be sure that the steps are on the downbeat, so that the claps can come on the offbeat.
where you go-ing buz-zard, where you go-ing crow?
step clap step clap step clap step clap
-snip-
My comment:
I believe that the word "knock" as used in the song "Knock Jim Crow" (and as it is used in another African American children's plantation game "Gon' Knock John Booker") means "to dance" (and probably "to dance very well"; I believe that this use of "knock" is very much like the phrase "He knocked it out of the park (or out of the box") to refer to somebody doing something-other than playing baseball very well.
This slang use of "knock" in those old Southern USA plantation songs reminds me of the Hip-Hop (Rap) dance songs that began with the phrase "Crank dat" ("Crank that"). The first song in that category is entitled "Crank That (Soulja Boy") by the rapper known as Soulja Boy (2007). "Crank That" (also given as "crank dat") means "to do that particular dance very well". The word "crank" used that way suggests starting up a movement similar to how the old record players had to be cranked to begin playing music.)
****
Google Books: Carrion Dreams 2.0: The Hagetaka-tan Version
By Benjamin Joel Wilkinson; pp. 374-375
...”[Thomas] Rice developed his [Jump Jim Crow] routine from an already extant song and dance tradition among southern blacks known as “Knock Jim Crow” which consisted in part of imitating the movement of birds. Whether the birds that were imitated were the genuine Jim crow-vultures- or the common American Crows, or both, it is impossible to say for certain.
The trademark movements of a vulture might seem like an odd inspiration for a popular dance routine, but we’ve already seen the Amerindians across the hemisphere employed just such inspiration for their ritual dances. Additionally, there was at least one other traditional [Black American] slave dance that was also popularized by a white minstrel, dubbed the “Buzzard Lope” which had much the same imitative origin as “Jump Jim Crow”. A dictionary published in 1890 defined Buzzard Lope as “the latest social institution in America….a dance taught to a Georgian negro by the turkey buzzard. Unlike Jump Jim Crow, this dance survived in one form or another into the 20th century; in Ben Burman’s 1938 book Blow For A Landing is found a description of the “buzzard dance” in which the dance would “wheel in long, doleful circles. His arms became gaunt, flapping wings; his head swung jerkily from his cadaverous neck, peering, searching.” Similar, if not identical dances were found by anthropologists studying the customs of African Americans living along the Georgia coast; and as late as 1958 there’s a description of an old man demonstrating “a kind of buck- and- wing dance dubbed the “Buzzard Flop”. Despite its vulturine origins, “Jump Jim Crow” proved to be a smash hit for Rice, who soon began to bill himself as “Jim Crow” Rice, and by the mid 1830s “Jim Crow” had entered the common parlance of white Americans, initially as a derogatory attachment. For example, editorial comment in a newspaper might call a disliked politician’s behavior a “Jim Crow” performance.
Along those same lines, abolitionist newspapers of the 1840s applied that term to railroad cars that separated their passengers by the color of their skin, in hopes of generating the appropriate amount of outrage about such bigoted arrangements. The name stuck so well that, during the post Civil War era, Jim Crow was used as a catchphrase description for the system of institutional segregation that was practiced in the American South until the 1960s. All and all vultures seem to have had a remarkable amount of influence upon African American dance culture, for good or ill.”...
-snip-
"Black American" in brackets is my addition to this passage to clarify which enslaved people the writer is referring to (since historically there were other enslaved people besides Black people and Black Americans.]
****
INFORMATION ABOUT "JUMP JIM CROW"
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jump_Jim_Crow
"Jump Jim Crow" is a song and dance from 1828 that was done in blackface by white comedian Thomas Dartmouth (T.D.) "Daddy" Rice. The number was supposedly inspired by the song and dance of a crippled African slave named Jim Cuff or Jim Crow, who is variously claimed to have resided in St. Louis, Cincinnati, or Pittsburgh.[1][2] The song became a great 19th century hit and Rice performed all over the country as "Daddy Jim Crow".
"Jump Jim Crow" was a key initial step in a tradition of popular music in the United States that was based on the imitation of Blacks. The first song sheet edition appeared in the early 1830s, published by E. Riley. A couple of decades would see the mockery genre explode in popularity with the rise of the minstrel show. It was also the initial step in the extant tradition in popular music of incorporating African styles and subject matter.
The tune became very well known not only in the United States but internationally; in 1841 the US ambassador to Central America, John Lloyd Stephens, wrote that upon his arrival in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico, the local brass band played "Jump Jim Crow" under the mistaken impression that it was the US national anthem.”...
=snip-
[excerpt from that song's original lyrics]
"kneel to de buzzard, an, I bow to the crow;
An eb'ry time I weel about I jump jis so.
Other verses, quoted in non-dialect standard English,
Come, listen, all you girls and boys, I'm just from Tuckahoe;
I'm going to sing a little song, My name's Jim Crow.
Chorus: Wheel about, and turn about, and do just so;
Every time I wheel about, I jump Jim Crow."
-snip-
Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALTam2L9NhE for "A recreation of the Jump Jim Crow refrain the way it was performed by Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice (1808-60). This clip is so short I repeated it three times so you can get a good look. This is the only clip I've ever found that shows a performer singing and dancing the actual tune. This clip is from a Vitaphone." (Video published by ikachina Published on Jan 26, 2013).
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RELATED LINKS
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/09/john-crow-part-i-what-john-crow-means.html for Part I of a pancocojam post on the Caribbean term "John Crow".
A pancocojam post on the African American children's game "Gon' Knock John Booker" (To The Low Ground) will be published ASAP.
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Showing posts with label African American plantation dance songs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label African American plantation dance songs. Show all posts
Monday, September 1, 2014
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Coonjine Baby & Other Examples Of Coonjine Songs
This is Part II of a two part pancocojams series about counjaille songs & dances and coonjine songs & dances. This post showcases eight examples of Coonjine songs or fragments of songs. Some of these examples include information about Coonjine songs.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/11/in-search-of-information-about_2.html for Part I of this series. That post provides excerpts from material that provides information about those songs and dances. I also share my speculations in that post about why I think that counjaille and coonjine songs and dances seem to have been largely forgotten.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, and cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
****
Part II
INFORMATION ABOUT "COONJINE" SONGS
"Coonjine" is a term that refers to the songs & dances performed by 19th century/early 20th century African American steamboat laborers (roustabouts). "Coonjine" ("coonshine" and other similar terms) also refers to a vernacular dance or dances that probably derived at least in part from the movements of the Black roustabouts who sang "coonjine songs" while they worked.
This excerpt from the 1939 manuscript "Coonjine In Manhatten" http://lcweb2.loc.gov/wpa/07070413.html refers to coonjine songs being sung while loading cotton. The author Garnett Laidlaw Eskew goes on to write:
"And there was another value to Coonjine. Moving in perfect time meant that the rousters' feet hit the stageplank with uniform precision. A wise thing, too! For if a rouster should step upon the vibrating boards out of time, and thus catch the rebound of the stage-plank, he was very likely to be catapulted with his load over into that muddy bourne from which no roustabout returns--or rarely so."
The word "coonjine" is probably an English language Americanized form of the French Caribbean & French Louisiana dance called the "counjaille".
Note that "coonjine" is a verb in that it refers to a type of walking and/or dancing movement. Here are three examples of this usage from the songs given below: "You might have seen the roustabout coonjine", "Coonjine, baby, won't you coonjine", and "coonjine out".
I've not come across any documents in which Black roustabouts were reported as saying "do the coonjine" or "sing the coonjine". Those noun forms of the word "coonjine" appeart to be a later development that isn't authentic to Black roustabouts who originated the type of songs that are now known as "Coonjine songs".
****
EXAMPLES OF COONJINE SONGS
Here are several text [word only] examples of Coonjine songs that include the word "coonjine"*.
These examples are presented in no particular order.
Unfortunately, to date, I've not found any YouTube video of Counjaille or Coonjine dances. Nor have I found any examples of songs that have the word "Counjaille" or "Coonjine"/"Coonshine") in their title.
*Note: All Coonjine songs don't have the word "Coonjine" in their title or in their lyrics. For instance, "standard" versions of the Ragtime and Old Time Music songs with the title "Alabama Bound" don't include the word "coonjine" although some verses of those songs may have included that word. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/11/leadbelly-golden-gate-quartet-alabama.htmlfor a pancocojams post on the song "Alabama Bound".
Example #1:
From Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana: The 1934 Lomax Recordings p. 247-249 by Joshua Clegg Caffery
[Quoting interviewee [African American] John Bray]
..."he [John Bray] plays a “coonjine” song of the type that is associated with steamboat roustabouts of the nineteenth and early twentieth century – a culture he was probably familiar with.
COONJINE, ROUSTABOUTS, COONJINE
We don’t do nothing but load this boat.
Ho day. Ho day. Ho day.
Come on men [you cigarette rollers]
Got yourself a n----r, six more shoulders.
Ho day. Ho day. Ho day.
How many men got trouble in mind?
Might have seen the roustabout coonjine.
Coonjine, the roustabout, coonjine.
Coonjine, the roustabout, coonjine.
How many men got trouble in mind?
You might have seen the roustabout coonjine.
All along the river [….]
You might have seen the roustabout coonjine.
Coonjine, the roustabout, coonjine.
How many men got trouble in mind?
You might have seen the roustabout coonjine.
Coonjine, oh woman let me tell you why.
Mighta seen your old man [clear o’er the river where]
big boats [never land].
clear o’er the river
You might have seen the roustabout coonjine.
Coonjine, coonjine, the roustabout coonjine.
How many men got trouble in mind?
You might have seen the roustabout coonjine.
Coonjine.
From New Orleans, big ole boat.
[High along, pile on?] the Mississippi.
Called the Robert E. Lee
Lord, you might have seen the roustabout coonjine.
Coonjine."
****
Example #2: The Milwaukee Journal - Jul 15, 1931, p. 9
“When Negroes Did The Coonjine Down Ole Mississippi Gangplanks”
[Google News]
Ole roustabout ain’t got no home
Makes his living on his shoulder bone.
****
Example #3:
From http://www.loc.gov/resource/wpalh0.07070205/seq-4#seq-4
Title: The Black South in Chicago ; Contributor Names Eskew, Garnett L. (Interviewer) Sims, George (Interviewee) Created Published Chicago, Illinois
1939
"Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1940
You done ask me 'bout steamboat songs. Hit bin zo long ago, an' I done jined de church sense I lef down dar, dat I mos fergit all about Coonjone. But dey wuz one song day we uster sing dat went like dis:
Sing dis song in de city,
Roll dat cotton bale!
N___r* always happy
When he gits out of jail.
Mobile's got de wimmin,
Boston got de beans,
New Yawk done got flashin' swells,
But de n____r* like N'yawleens,
Cho: Coonjine, baby, won't you coonjine,
Coonjine, honey, is you game,
Mammy won't lemme coonjine
But I coonjine jus' de same!
"Sing hit fer you? Lawd, boss, I aint sung no sich song for forty years. Hit went like dis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (NOTE: He sang it, but impossible to reproduce it.)
"We useter sing dat song when I was workin' on de Alice B. Miller, runnin' up Yazoo River and sometime when I work on de Saint John, a cotton boat, dat run up Red River."
*What is now known as "the n word" is completely spelled out in this article.
****
Example #4:
From http://lcweb2.loc.gov/wpa/07070413.html "Coonjine In Manhattan". Garnett Laidlaw Eskew, 1939
"Coonjine songs were not spirituals--neither the genuine nor the "Broadway" variety. There was nothing spiritual about them that I have been able to discover.
Into these songs the rousters put the problems and the incidents of the day's labor, the characteristics of the people they met. The {Begin page no. 5}peculiarities of a mate or captain or fellow rouster; the speed and qualities of a particular boat; the charms or meanness of a woman-friend; domestic matters--all these were subjects which the steamboat roustabouts move into the texture of the Coonjine songs with which they lightened the labor of steamboat work. Composed sometimes on the spur of the moment, or garbled versions of songs previously heard, often the words were ridiculous, sometimes senseless, but nearly always ludicrous with occasionally a touch of pathos...
Standing there with him [a former Black roustabout] in the West Street pier shed, I gathered a sizeable collection of Coonjine songs. Many, I have no doubt, bore only a slight resemblance to the original wordings. For roustabouts felt, so long as they preserved the thought and central idea and rhythm of a song, they could change the words at will. Sometime they abandoned the existing words and made up new words of their own. I have heard different versions of barely recognizable Coonjine songs in various towns from St. Louis to the Delta"...
Vicksburg roustabouts were also partial to this song, which had reference to a certain one-armed hard-fisted steamboat mate, named Lew Brown. {Begin page no. 9}
Taint no use for dodgin' roun'
Dat ole mate jes' behine you.
Better cut dat step and coonjine out
Dat ole jes' behine you
-snip-
"cut dat [that] step and coonjine out" probably means "leave in a hurry.".
Note: That page includes several examples of Coonjine songs that don't include the word "coonjine". Warning: This page inludes what we now call the "n word".
****
Example #5:
From Lynne Fauley Emery's book Black Dance from 1619 to Today {second edition; Princeton Book Company, 1988, pps 146-147}:
'The term Counjaille, or Coojine is still used in southern United States waterfront areas to mean moving or loading cotton, an activity that once, in all probablility, was accompanied by Counjaille-type songs and rhythms. Negro children on the docks and levies sand such songs as:
Throw me a nickle, throw me a dime
If you want to see me do the Coojine.'
****
Example #6:
From Josh White: Society Blues [Google Books] by Elijah Wald
[p.9]
"[A childhood friend of Black American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor, and civil rights musician Josh White (February 11, 1914 – September 5, 1969) [Perry] Fuller also provides a vignette that shows how closely secular and religious music can overlap, at least among younger members of the family.
“He remembers the kids gathered around the piano while Marie Huff, who was seven years Josh’s senior, pounded out ragtime tunes: “She would be playing that tune “Coonjine, coojine, baby/Coojine,baby, coojine/ Mama don’t ‘low you to coonjine/papa don’t ‘low you to try/Get up in the morning/ coonjine on the sly.” Fuller sings quietly bobbing his head to the bouncy melody. And then Aunt Lizzie started coming into the room and they’d change around, start to sing [to the same tune] “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so”.
****
Example #7:
From Barrelhouse Words: A Blues Dialect Dictionary by Stephen Calt [Google Books]
Page 60
Coonjine, my lady, coonjine
Mama don’t allow me to coonjine”
-The Black Hillbillies, Kunjine Baby, 1929
An obsolete dance enshrined in the eight bar ditty of the same or like name. The musical theme associated with it was excerpted in Gottschalk’s “Bamboula” (1847) and printed in Allen, Ware, and Garrison’s Slave Songs Of The United States (1867) as one of four Louisiana tunes “for a simple dance, a sort of minuet, called the Coonjai. By 1910 it had become a Black children’s dance and a beginner’s piano piece in the South. It’s original or prevalent name is in doubt; Little Brother Montgomery who learned it in 1910, stated that the dance/song was actually Coon Giant. As Kunjine it received its first recorded treatment, by Alan Lada in 1921. Puckett, who described it in 1925, as “a sort of Negro dance” done in Louisiana, rendered it as Coonjai, while Bessie Jones (of the Georgia Sea Isles) and Skip James recalled it as Coonshine.Cf DARE which relates it solely to a swaying gait.
****
Example #8:
From Bessie Jones' and Bess Lomax Hawes' book Step It Down: Games, Plays, Songs, and Stories from the Afro-American Heritage ; p. 131-132
COONSHINE BABY
Coonshine, baby, coonshine
Coonshine on the sly,
Mama don't 'low me to coonshine,
Papa don't 'low me to try,
Onliest way I coonshine,
I coonshine on the sly.
Coonshine, baby, coonshine
Coonshine, baby, coonshine
Coonshine, baby, coonshine
Coonshine on the sly.
Someday I'm gonna coonshine,
Coonshine anyhow
Mama don't 'low me to coonshine,
Papa don't 'low me to try,
Onliest way I coonshine,
I coonshine on the sly.
Coonshine, baby, coonshine, etc.
When I get grown I’m gonna coonshine
Coonshine anyhow
Mama don't 'low me to coonshine,
Papa don't 'low me to try,
Onliest way I coonshine,
I coonshine on the sly
Coonshine, baby, coonshine
Coonshine, baby, coonshine
Coonshine, baby, coonshine
Coonshine anyhow
-snip-
Bess Lomax Hawes wrote that she didn’t get a chance to see this dance, but from the song’s lyrics she gathered that people considered it to be a scandalous dance.
-snip-
"I coonshine on the sly" means I sneak to do that dance; I secretely do that dance when no one is watching.
****
Thanks to all those who sung & danced the Coonjine.
Thanks also to those who are quoted in this post.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/11/in-search-of-information-about_2.html for Part I of this series. That post provides excerpts from material that provides information about those songs and dances. I also share my speculations in that post about why I think that counjaille and coonjine songs and dances seem to have been largely forgotten.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, and cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
****
Part II
INFORMATION ABOUT "COONJINE" SONGS
"Coonjine" is a term that refers to the songs & dances performed by 19th century/early 20th century African American steamboat laborers (roustabouts). "Coonjine" ("coonshine" and other similar terms) also refers to a vernacular dance or dances that probably derived at least in part from the movements of the Black roustabouts who sang "coonjine songs" while they worked.
This excerpt from the 1939 manuscript "Coonjine In Manhatten" http://lcweb2.loc.gov/wpa/07070413.html refers to coonjine songs being sung while loading cotton. The author Garnett Laidlaw Eskew goes on to write:
"And there was another value to Coonjine. Moving in perfect time meant that the rousters' feet hit the stageplank with uniform precision. A wise thing, too! For if a rouster should step upon the vibrating boards out of time, and thus catch the rebound of the stage-plank, he was very likely to be catapulted with his load over into that muddy bourne from which no roustabout returns--or rarely so."
The word "coonjine" is probably an English language Americanized form of the French Caribbean & French Louisiana dance called the "counjaille".
Note that "coonjine" is a verb in that it refers to a type of walking and/or dancing movement. Here are three examples of this usage from the songs given below: "You might have seen the roustabout coonjine", "Coonjine, baby, won't you coonjine", and "coonjine out".
I've not come across any documents in which Black roustabouts were reported as saying "do the coonjine" or "sing the coonjine". Those noun forms of the word "coonjine" appeart to be a later development that isn't authentic to Black roustabouts who originated the type of songs that are now known as "Coonjine songs".
****
EXAMPLES OF COONJINE SONGS
Here are several text [word only] examples of Coonjine songs that include the word "coonjine"*.
These examples are presented in no particular order.
Unfortunately, to date, I've not found any YouTube video of Counjaille or Coonjine dances. Nor have I found any examples of songs that have the word "Counjaille" or "Coonjine"/"Coonshine") in their title.
*Note: All Coonjine songs don't have the word "Coonjine" in their title or in their lyrics. For instance, "standard" versions of the Ragtime and Old Time Music songs with the title "Alabama Bound" don't include the word "coonjine" although some verses of those songs may have included that word. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/11/leadbelly-golden-gate-quartet-alabama.htmlfor a pancocojams post on the song "Alabama Bound".
Example #1:
From Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana: The 1934 Lomax Recordings p. 247-249 by Joshua Clegg Caffery
[Quoting interviewee [African American] John Bray]
..."he [John Bray] plays a “coonjine” song of the type that is associated with steamboat roustabouts of the nineteenth and early twentieth century – a culture he was probably familiar with.
COONJINE, ROUSTABOUTS, COONJINE
We don’t do nothing but load this boat.
Ho day. Ho day. Ho day.
Come on men [you cigarette rollers]
Got yourself a n----r, six more shoulders.
Ho day. Ho day. Ho day.
How many men got trouble in mind?
Might have seen the roustabout coonjine.
Coonjine, the roustabout, coonjine.
Coonjine, the roustabout, coonjine.
How many men got trouble in mind?
You might have seen the roustabout coonjine.
All along the river [….]
You might have seen the roustabout coonjine.
Coonjine, the roustabout, coonjine.
How many men got trouble in mind?
You might have seen the roustabout coonjine.
Coonjine, oh woman let me tell you why.
Mighta seen your old man [clear o’er the river where]
big boats [never land].
clear o’er the river
You might have seen the roustabout coonjine.
Coonjine, coonjine, the roustabout coonjine.
How many men got trouble in mind?
You might have seen the roustabout coonjine.
Coonjine.
From New Orleans, big ole boat.
[High along, pile on?] the Mississippi.
Called the Robert E. Lee
Lord, you might have seen the roustabout coonjine.
Coonjine."
****
Example #2: The Milwaukee Journal - Jul 15, 1931, p. 9
“When Negroes Did The Coonjine Down Ole Mississippi Gangplanks”
[Google News]
Ole roustabout ain’t got no home
Makes his living on his shoulder bone.
****
Example #3:
From http://www.loc.gov/resource/wpalh0.07070205/seq-4#seq-4
Title: The Black South in Chicago ; Contributor Names Eskew, Garnett L. (Interviewer) Sims, George (Interviewee) Created Published Chicago, Illinois
1939
"Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1940
You done ask me 'bout steamboat songs. Hit bin zo long ago, an' I done jined de church sense I lef down dar, dat I mos fergit all about Coonjone. But dey wuz one song day we uster sing dat went like dis:
Sing dis song in de city,
Roll dat cotton bale!
N___r* always happy
When he gits out of jail.
Mobile's got de wimmin,
Boston got de beans,
New Yawk done got flashin' swells,
But de n____r* like N'yawleens,
Cho: Coonjine, baby, won't you coonjine,
Coonjine, honey, is you game,
Mammy won't lemme coonjine
But I coonjine jus' de same!
"Sing hit fer you? Lawd, boss, I aint sung no sich song for forty years. Hit went like dis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (NOTE: He sang it, but impossible to reproduce it.)
"We useter sing dat song when I was workin' on de Alice B. Miller, runnin' up Yazoo River and sometime when I work on de Saint John, a cotton boat, dat run up Red River."
*What is now known as "the n word" is completely spelled out in this article.
****
Example #4:
From http://lcweb2.loc.gov/wpa/07070413.html "Coonjine In Manhattan". Garnett Laidlaw Eskew, 1939
"Coonjine songs were not spirituals--neither the genuine nor the "Broadway" variety. There was nothing spiritual about them that I have been able to discover.
Into these songs the rousters put the problems and the incidents of the day's labor, the characteristics of the people they met. The {Begin page no. 5}peculiarities of a mate or captain or fellow rouster; the speed and qualities of a particular boat; the charms or meanness of a woman-friend; domestic matters--all these were subjects which the steamboat roustabouts move into the texture of the Coonjine songs with which they lightened the labor of steamboat work. Composed sometimes on the spur of the moment, or garbled versions of songs previously heard, often the words were ridiculous, sometimes senseless, but nearly always ludicrous with occasionally a touch of pathos...
Standing there with him [a former Black roustabout] in the West Street pier shed, I gathered a sizeable collection of Coonjine songs. Many, I have no doubt, bore only a slight resemblance to the original wordings. For roustabouts felt, so long as they preserved the thought and central idea and rhythm of a song, they could change the words at will. Sometime they abandoned the existing words and made up new words of their own. I have heard different versions of barely recognizable Coonjine songs in various towns from St. Louis to the Delta"...
Vicksburg roustabouts were also partial to this song, which had reference to a certain one-armed hard-fisted steamboat mate, named Lew Brown. {Begin page no. 9}
Taint no use for dodgin' roun'
Dat ole mate jes' behine you.
Better cut dat step and coonjine out
Dat ole jes' behine you
-snip-
"cut dat [that] step and coonjine out" probably means "leave in a hurry.".
Note: That page includes several examples of Coonjine songs that don't include the word "coonjine". Warning: This page inludes what we now call the "n word".
****
Example #5:
From Lynne Fauley Emery's book Black Dance from 1619 to Today {second edition; Princeton Book Company, 1988, pps 146-147}:
'The term Counjaille, or Coojine is still used in southern United States waterfront areas to mean moving or loading cotton, an activity that once, in all probablility, was accompanied by Counjaille-type songs and rhythms. Negro children on the docks and levies sand such songs as:
Throw me a nickle, throw me a dime
If you want to see me do the Coojine.'
****
Example #6:
From Josh White: Society Blues [Google Books] by Elijah Wald
[p.9]
"[A childhood friend of Black American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor, and civil rights musician Josh White (February 11, 1914 – September 5, 1969) [Perry] Fuller also provides a vignette that shows how closely secular and religious music can overlap, at least among younger members of the family.
“He remembers the kids gathered around the piano while Marie Huff, who was seven years Josh’s senior, pounded out ragtime tunes: “She would be playing that tune “Coonjine, coojine, baby/Coojine,baby, coojine/ Mama don’t ‘low you to coonjine/papa don’t ‘low you to try/Get up in the morning/ coonjine on the sly.” Fuller sings quietly bobbing his head to the bouncy melody. And then Aunt Lizzie started coming into the room and they’d change around, start to sing [to the same tune] “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so”.
****
Example #7:
From Barrelhouse Words: A Blues Dialect Dictionary by Stephen Calt [Google Books]
Page 60
Coonjine, my lady, coonjine
Mama don’t allow me to coonjine”
-The Black Hillbillies, Kunjine Baby, 1929
An obsolete dance enshrined in the eight bar ditty of the same or like name. The musical theme associated with it was excerpted in Gottschalk’s “Bamboula” (1847) and printed in Allen, Ware, and Garrison’s Slave Songs Of The United States (1867) as one of four Louisiana tunes “for a simple dance, a sort of minuet, called the Coonjai. By 1910 it had become a Black children’s dance and a beginner’s piano piece in the South. It’s original or prevalent name is in doubt; Little Brother Montgomery who learned it in 1910, stated that the dance/song was actually Coon Giant. As Kunjine it received its first recorded treatment, by Alan Lada in 1921. Puckett, who described it in 1925, as “a sort of Negro dance” done in Louisiana, rendered it as Coonjai, while Bessie Jones (of the Georgia Sea Isles) and Skip James recalled it as Coonshine.Cf DARE which relates it solely to a swaying gait.
****
Example #8:
From Bessie Jones' and Bess Lomax Hawes' book Step It Down: Games, Plays, Songs, and Stories from the Afro-American Heritage ; p. 131-132
COONSHINE BABY
Coonshine, baby, coonshine
Coonshine on the sly,
Mama don't 'low me to coonshine,
Papa don't 'low me to try,
Onliest way I coonshine,
I coonshine on the sly.
Coonshine, baby, coonshine
Coonshine, baby, coonshine
Coonshine, baby, coonshine
Coonshine on the sly.
Someday I'm gonna coonshine,
Coonshine anyhow
Mama don't 'low me to coonshine,
Papa don't 'low me to try,
Onliest way I coonshine,
I coonshine on the sly.
Coonshine, baby, coonshine, etc.
When I get grown I’m gonna coonshine
Coonshine anyhow
Mama don't 'low me to coonshine,
Papa don't 'low me to try,
Onliest way I coonshine,
I coonshine on the sly
Coonshine, baby, coonshine
Coonshine, baby, coonshine
Coonshine, baby, coonshine
Coonshine anyhow
-snip-
Bess Lomax Hawes wrote that she didn’t get a chance to see this dance, but from the song’s lyrics she gathered that people considered it to be a scandalous dance.
-snip-
"I coonshine on the sly" means I sneak to do that dance; I secretely do that dance when no one is watching.
****
Thanks to all those who sung & danced the Coonjine.
Thanks also to those who are quoted in this post.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
In Search Of Information About Counjaille & Coonjine Songs & Dances
Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part I of a two part series about counjaille songs & dances and coonjine songs & dances. This post provides excerpts from material that provides information about those songs and dances. I also share my speculations in this post about why I think that counjaille and coonjine songs and dances seem to have been largely forgotten.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/11/coonjine-baby-other-examples-of.html for Part II of this series. That post presents information about coonjine songs and eight examples of songs or song fragments that include the word "coonjine" or "coonshine".
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, and cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
****
Part I
INFORMATION ABOUT COUNJAILLE AND COONJINE
From http://www.lameca.org/dossiers/gwoka/references/glossaire/glossaire_eng.html GLOSSARY (by Joby Bourguignon)
"Counjaille.
One of the popular tunes in Guadeloupe «Counjaille O Counjaille etc...) and is proof of a Congolese presence in the country. This term describes a dance from the Congolese ritual, traces of which can be found in Guadeloupe and Santo Domingo in 1807/1809 at a time when ethnic groups were travelling from these countries to New Orleans to escape from the Napoleonic wars.
In the same way as the bamboula, Calinda, Chacha etc., these dances were performed from French Guiana to New Orleans as well as Santo Domingo and all of the French West Indies.
Considered to be indecent, the «Place Congo» was banned in New Orleans in 1843. (This ban was respected throughout the Caribbean and reinforced the Edict of March 1685, and was recorded by the Sovereign Council of Santo Domingo on May 6th, 1687 under the name “Code Noir”). Art. 16...
It is important to specify that in the Creole language, this word can mean several different things. The same word describes the music, dance, group gathering, etc..."
****
From Lynne Fauley Emery's book Black Dance from 1619 to Today {second edition; Princeton Book Company, 1988, pps 146-147}
"The Coonjine, another of the river dances, was still "remembered in scattered areas through the Antilles" as late as 1963. In the Caribbean, however the dance was performed during carnival time and called the "Counjaille", while in the United States the Coonjine was performed on the waterfront by the black roustabouts and "was a rhythmic shuffle affected to expedite loading and unloading..." Harold Courlander reported:
'The term Counjaille, or Coojine is still used in southern United States waterfront areas to mean moving or loading cotton, an activity that once, in all probablility, was accompanied by Counjaille-type songs and rhythms. Negro children on the docks and levies sand such songs as:
Throw me a nickle, throw me a dime
If you want to see me do the Coojine.'
According to Mary Wheeler. The Coonjine was a combination of song and dance connected with freight handling on the steamboats.
'The "plank walk" springs under a heavy weight or even under the lighter step of the rouster when he trots back again empty handed for more freight. To avoid jarring, the feet are dragged along the stage plank accompanied by a song that takes its rhythm from the shuffling feet and swaying shoulders.'
Allen, Ware, and Garrison mentioned the Coonjai and described it as a sort of Minuet, Unfortunately, although the authors spparently saw the dance, they described the musical accompaniment rather than the movements".
****
From Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana: The 1934 Lomax Recordings Joshua Clegg Caffery (Google Book, pp. 247-249)
"The word coonjine, as it is employed here, as it was apparently most commonly understood in nineteenth- century America, refers to the particular body movements enacted by black workers while unloading or loading freight (Hardie 2004, 115-16). While the word was associated with these movements, it could also apply to any songs or dances performed by these laborers while going about their work. More broadly, the word came to be associated with any riparian African American song and dance style.
The roots of the word coonjine extend well beyond this meaning, and some have noted that it likely relates to the term counjaille, a dance popular in Creole communities in French Louisiana and the West Indies (Knowles 2002, 63-64). In the seminal Slave Songs Of The South, for instance, mention is made of a counjaille being performed in St. Charles Parish (a “sort of minuet”), suggesting that the counjaille in question may have been part of the complex of quadrille/contredanse sets found disseminated throughout Creole culture (Allen et al, 1867, 137).
Counjaille or Coonjine may also relate to the Haitian dance known as the koudyay or the Nicaraguan kujai. Although these dances are wildly different, their names have a common linguistic root in the West Indian dance performance known as “coup de jaille” (meaning a spontaneous spouting forth), a term that seems to have originated in colonial French military and political celebrations (Manuel, 2009, 31). In 1937 John Lomax recorded a song that referenced dancing the counjallee from a self-described Creole Haitian descendant in a nursing home in New Orleans (AFS 809 A01). In general, then, like European dance forms like the mazurka, quadrille, or jig, counjaile functioned as a basic name for a dance movement that accompanied a wide variety of vernacular, creolized associations.
It should also be mentioned that coonjine performers in the United States were among the most visible exponents of African American oral art in the 19th century. As steamboat roustabouts, they were in close contact with white people of various ethnic and economic backgrounds – a context that allowed their performances to permeate the boundaries of race and class. Not surprisingly, many of the early blackface minstrel performers may have based their performances of the songs and dances of the musical roustabouts (Kenney, 2005, 29-30), and roustabout coonjine songs may have marked an intermediate phase between plantation performances and the explosion of minstrelsy in the mid nineteenth century- a middle stage of African American vernacular music’s absorption into America’s popular music consciousness.”
-snip-
Here's information about The Black Bottom which indicates that that dance derives from an older dance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Bottom_(dance)
"The Original Black Bottom Dance" was printed in 1919. It came from an earlier dance called "Jacksonville Rounders' Dance" printed in 1907. The word "Rounder" was a synonym for "pimp." Both "dance-songs" were written by black pianist, composer and dancer Perry Bradford and were based on a dance done in Jacksonville, Florida "way back." One professional dancer stated, "That dance is as old as the hills." The dance was well known among semi-rural blacks across the South. A similar dance with many variations had been commonly used in tent show performances, and "Bradford and Jeanette" had used it as a finale. The dance was featured in the Harlem show Dinah in 1924, and then "The Scandals of 1926," whereupon it became a national craze."
-snip-
I wonder if the "Jacksonville Rounders' Dance" may have been another name for the Coonjine or if the "Jacksonville Rounders' Dance" was derived from the Coonjine dance.
Also, read this video summary from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsukq62fMA4 "Black Bottom - Vintage Blues Dance"
"The Black Bottom (aka Swanee Bottom) was originally from New Orleans, later worked its way to Georgia and finally New York. Some say the Black Bottom was introduced by blues singer "Alberta Hunter" (which is probably true as many songs & dances were "stolen" and reproduced by someone else). However, it has been reported that the Black Bottom was derived from an earlier and similar dance called the "Echo." The dance was done all over the South before Bradford wrote his song in 1919.
Simple moves were created by natural movements, like the stomp was to imitate a cow's feet stuck in mud."
-snip-
That video includes a brief clip of two young Black boys doing some dancing movements that are labeled the Black Bottom by that film's narrator.[.57-1.06]. The sub-title at 1.07-1.08 reads "The colored kids got it from a cow stuck in the mud".*
That film clip also shows two young Black girls doing some movements that are said to be the Black Bottom.[Unfortunately, only the top portions of their bodies are shown. [4:21-4:27]
*"Colored" is a no longer used referent for all African Americans regardless of their skin color. That referent largely ceased being used in the 1960s & 1970s.
"It" in that sentence means "the movements to the Black Bottom dance". "From a cow stuck in the mud" means "imitating the foot movements of a cow stuck in the mud". Of course, this isn't meant to be taken seriously, although many African American dances were created by imitating birds or specific animals.
Was the "Echo" dance "that was done all over the South before Bradford wrote his song in 1919" a more socially acceptable name for the Coonjine?
****
Note: The following excerpt from the 1886 magazine article points out the improvisational, open ended nature of counjaille songs and improvisational nature of the counjaille dance.
George W. Cable, "Creole Slave Dances: The Dance in Place Congo" (published in The Century Magazine, Vol. 31, Nr. 4 [February 1886], pp. 517-532)
Quoted in http://www.angelpig.com/congo9.html "The Dance In Place Congo" New Orleans [p. 9]
"V. COUNJAILLE
“Suddenly the song changes. The rhythm sweeps away long and smooth like a river escaping from its rapids, and in new spirit, with louder drum beats and more jocund rattles, the voices roll up into the sky and the dancers are at it. Aye yai yi!
I could give four verses, but let one suffice; it is from a manuscript copy of the words, probably a hundred years old that fell into my hands through the courtesy of an old Creole lady…The counjaille was never complete, and found its end, for the time being in the caprice of its improviser, whose rich, stentorian voice sounded alone between the refrains. But while we discourse other couples have stepped into the grassy area and the instrumental din has risen to a fresh height of inspiration, the posing, the thigh-beating, the breast-patting and chanting and swinging and writhing has risen, and the song has changed.
But the dance has not changed, and love is still the theme. Sweat streaks from black brows, down the shining black necks and throats, upon men’s bare chest, and unto dark, unstayed bosoms. Time wares, shadows lengthen; but the movement is brisker than ever, and the big feet and the bent shanks, are as light as thistles on the air. Let one flag, another has his place, and a new song gives vehemence, new inventions in steps, turns, and attitudes."
****
From Google News
The Milwaukee Journal - Jul 15, 1931, p. 9
“When Negroes Did The Coonjine Down Ole Mississippi Gangplanks”
Singing songs as they shuffled along made the totin’ easier and made the Roustabouts forget their troubles, Tunes created to fit the occassion.
“Now coonjine ~the name of that swinging, slouchy loose kneed, dance of the negro roustabouts up and down the Mississippi steamboat's” [planks’?]*
*The word in brackets wasn't visible in the online version of that newspaper article.
Note that approved spelling for the word "Negro" is with an upper class case "n" since at least the early 1960s. However, some Black Americans spell that word with a lower case "n" to refer to a Black person who acts like an "Uncle Tom".
****
EDITORIAL COMMENT:
Why aren't counjaille and coonjine songs and dances more widely known or at least known as much as other Caribbean and African American vernacular dances such as the Calinda, and African American dances such as the Cake Walk, the Black Bottom, the Charleston, and The Shimmy? Filmed examples of those other listed African American vernacular dances from the 18th century and 19th century/early 20th century dances can be found on YouTube. There are at least two historical film clips of the cake walk on YouTube. There are also several film clips of White dancers from the early to mid twentieth century performing those other dances - but, regrettably, I've not yet found any film clips of Black people performing those other dances. However, to date, I've not found any song or dance examples of the counjaille or the coonjine on YouTube.
In my opinion, the main reason why so little information is known nowadays about "coonjine" songs & dances is that song & dance name itself.
The word "coonjine" and its alternate name "coonshine" begin with the problematic syllable "coon". That word evokes distrubing and stigmatizing images of Black slavery and black faced minstrelsy. I admit that until faily recently I shied away from reading anything about black-faced minstrelsy and just the names "coonjine" or "coonshine" would have been a big turn off for me. And I don't think that I'm the only Black person who has this gut distaste for and avoidance of anything that is even slightly related to "minstrelsy". For example, I used to avoid any songs or isntrumentals that featured banjos. Thanks in large part to the contemporary African American Old Time music group The Carolina Chocolate Drops, I've begun to explore that music and actually (surprisingly for me) like much of it. But I still cringe when I read about that Old Time music because I know that I may come across what is now called "the n word" and such examples of 19th Black dialectic English as "gwine" and "massa".
While some "coonjine" songs & dances influenced White blackfaced minstrelsy -and also Black blacfaced minstrelsy- "coonjine" songs were much more than material for those performers.
And it should be admitted that some but not all Southern Black Americans used the word "coon" as a self-referent and a group referent in the 19th century. However, I don't think that most Black Americans that time, used "coon" that way. Certainly, Black people who were trying to "raise the race" and/or Black people who wanted to be considered more acceptable by White people wouldn't have been happy that "coonjine"/coonshine" was included that "coon" syllable.
The word "coonshine" may have started out as a form of the word "coonjine" (which itself probably is derived from the word "counjaille". However, I believe the vernacular connotations of the word "shine" as it related to Black people is another reason why the name "coonshine"/"coonjine" was retired for those dances and songs.
"Shine" is the name of an anti-hero in African American [usually bawdy] narratives called "toasts". One relatively well known example of those toasts is "Shine And The Titanic".*
The character's name "Shine" and the use of the word "shine" as an informal referent for Black men probably was coined because of the erroneous belief that dark black skin shone like blue-black shoe polish.
Also, White people may have shied away from the name "coonjine" because the syllable “coon” in that dance was the same as the vernacular referent for Black people and that term was too lower class and too reminiscent of plantation South for White "polite society."
I also wonder if the similarity of the word "coonshine" to the colloquial word for liquor "moonshine" may have contributed to that lack of acceptance of the name "coonshine" among White people and Black people. "Moonshine" evokes images of White hillbillies, and that group of people were looked down on by other White people, contributing to the connotation of "coonshine" as a lower class name for that dance.
However, while Black people-eventually retired the "coonjine" dance name, they continued or adapted that dance's movements under a different name or names. (I'm not sure if White people ever knew enough about that vernacular dance to be said to have eeventually dropped its' name.)
For instance, I wonder if the Black Bottom was a slowed down version of the Coonjine. After all, both of these 19th century dances are said to have originated in Louisiana. Notice how in the following excerpt the Black Bottom is said to have been based on an "old dance".
*Click http://www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/Articles_Essays/creole_art_toast_tradition.html for commentary about African American toasts and a "clean" examples of "Shine And The Titanic".
Also, it seems to me that another reason why Coonjine didn't become a White dance craze [at least not under that name.], probably for the reasons I gave in point #1. Note that almost always the term “dance craze” in the United States refers to dances that White people pick up & modify from Black people. There don't appear to be any films of White people or Black people doing the Coonjine. - prior to the Lindy Hop/Swing era, Black dancers were rarely filmed doing vernacular dances.
Furthermore, for the most part, African Americans aren’t good at preserving, honoring, and disseminating information about our cultural history. In astrology terms, Black people are far more Uranian than we are Saturnian, meaning we are much more interested in innovating new dances and other cultural forms, including new forms of old dances, than we are in preserving old forms.
Thanks to all those who sung & danced the Counjaille and the Coonjine.
Thanks also to those who are quoted in this post.
Thanks for visiting pancocojam.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This is Part I of a two part series about counjaille songs & dances and coonjine songs & dances. This post provides excerpts from material that provides information about those songs and dances. I also share my speculations in this post about why I think that counjaille and coonjine songs and dances seem to have been largely forgotten.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/11/coonjine-baby-other-examples-of.html for Part II of this series. That post presents information about coonjine songs and eight examples of songs or song fragments that include the word "coonjine" or "coonshine".
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, and cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
****
Part I
INFORMATION ABOUT COUNJAILLE AND COONJINE
From http://www.lameca.org/dossiers/gwoka/references/glossaire/glossaire_eng.html GLOSSARY (by Joby Bourguignon)
"Counjaille.
One of the popular tunes in Guadeloupe «Counjaille O Counjaille etc...) and is proof of a Congolese presence in the country. This term describes a dance from the Congolese ritual, traces of which can be found in Guadeloupe and Santo Domingo in 1807/1809 at a time when ethnic groups were travelling from these countries to New Orleans to escape from the Napoleonic wars.
In the same way as the bamboula, Calinda, Chacha etc., these dances were performed from French Guiana to New Orleans as well as Santo Domingo and all of the French West Indies.
Considered to be indecent, the «Place Congo» was banned in New Orleans in 1843. (This ban was respected throughout the Caribbean and reinforced the Edict of March 1685, and was recorded by the Sovereign Council of Santo Domingo on May 6th, 1687 under the name “Code Noir”). Art. 16...
It is important to specify that in the Creole language, this word can mean several different things. The same word describes the music, dance, group gathering, etc..."
****
From Lynne Fauley Emery's book Black Dance from 1619 to Today {second edition; Princeton Book Company, 1988, pps 146-147}
"The Coonjine, another of the river dances, was still "remembered in scattered areas through the Antilles" as late as 1963. In the Caribbean, however the dance was performed during carnival time and called the "Counjaille", while in the United States the Coonjine was performed on the waterfront by the black roustabouts and "was a rhythmic shuffle affected to expedite loading and unloading..." Harold Courlander reported:
'The term Counjaille, or Coojine is still used in southern United States waterfront areas to mean moving or loading cotton, an activity that once, in all probablility, was accompanied by Counjaille-type songs and rhythms. Negro children on the docks and levies sand such songs as:
Throw me a nickle, throw me a dime
If you want to see me do the Coojine.'
According to Mary Wheeler. The Coonjine was a combination of song and dance connected with freight handling on the steamboats.
'The "plank walk" springs under a heavy weight or even under the lighter step of the rouster when he trots back again empty handed for more freight. To avoid jarring, the feet are dragged along the stage plank accompanied by a song that takes its rhythm from the shuffling feet and swaying shoulders.'
Allen, Ware, and Garrison mentioned the Coonjai and described it as a sort of Minuet, Unfortunately, although the authors spparently saw the dance, they described the musical accompaniment rather than the movements".
****
From Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana: The 1934 Lomax Recordings Joshua Clegg Caffery (Google Book, pp. 247-249)
"The word coonjine, as it is employed here, as it was apparently most commonly understood in nineteenth- century America, refers to the particular body movements enacted by black workers while unloading or loading freight (Hardie 2004, 115-16). While the word was associated with these movements, it could also apply to any songs or dances performed by these laborers while going about their work. More broadly, the word came to be associated with any riparian African American song and dance style.
The roots of the word coonjine extend well beyond this meaning, and some have noted that it likely relates to the term counjaille, a dance popular in Creole communities in French Louisiana and the West Indies (Knowles 2002, 63-64). In the seminal Slave Songs Of The South, for instance, mention is made of a counjaille being performed in St. Charles Parish (a “sort of minuet”), suggesting that the counjaille in question may have been part of the complex of quadrille/contredanse sets found disseminated throughout Creole culture (Allen et al, 1867, 137).
Counjaille or Coonjine may also relate to the Haitian dance known as the koudyay or the Nicaraguan kujai. Although these dances are wildly different, their names have a common linguistic root in the West Indian dance performance known as “coup de jaille” (meaning a spontaneous spouting forth), a term that seems to have originated in colonial French military and political celebrations (Manuel, 2009, 31). In 1937 John Lomax recorded a song that referenced dancing the counjallee from a self-described Creole Haitian descendant in a nursing home in New Orleans (AFS 809 A01). In general, then, like European dance forms like the mazurka, quadrille, or jig, counjaile functioned as a basic name for a dance movement that accompanied a wide variety of vernacular, creolized associations.
It should also be mentioned that coonjine performers in the United States were among the most visible exponents of African American oral art in the 19th century. As steamboat roustabouts, they were in close contact with white people of various ethnic and economic backgrounds – a context that allowed their performances to permeate the boundaries of race and class. Not surprisingly, many of the early blackface minstrel performers may have based their performances of the songs and dances of the musical roustabouts (Kenney, 2005, 29-30), and roustabout coonjine songs may have marked an intermediate phase between plantation performances and the explosion of minstrelsy in the mid nineteenth century- a middle stage of African American vernacular music’s absorption into America’s popular music consciousness.”
-snip-
Here's information about The Black Bottom which indicates that that dance derives from an older dance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Bottom_(dance)
"The Original Black Bottom Dance" was printed in 1919. It came from an earlier dance called "Jacksonville Rounders' Dance" printed in 1907. The word "Rounder" was a synonym for "pimp." Both "dance-songs" were written by black pianist, composer and dancer Perry Bradford and were based on a dance done in Jacksonville, Florida "way back." One professional dancer stated, "That dance is as old as the hills." The dance was well known among semi-rural blacks across the South. A similar dance with many variations had been commonly used in tent show performances, and "Bradford and Jeanette" had used it as a finale. The dance was featured in the Harlem show Dinah in 1924, and then "The Scandals of 1926," whereupon it became a national craze."
-snip-
I wonder if the "Jacksonville Rounders' Dance" may have been another name for the Coonjine or if the "Jacksonville Rounders' Dance" was derived from the Coonjine dance.
Also, read this video summary from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsukq62fMA4 "Black Bottom - Vintage Blues Dance"
"The Black Bottom (aka Swanee Bottom) was originally from New Orleans, later worked its way to Georgia and finally New York. Some say the Black Bottom was introduced by blues singer "Alberta Hunter" (which is probably true as many songs & dances were "stolen" and reproduced by someone else). However, it has been reported that the Black Bottom was derived from an earlier and similar dance called the "Echo." The dance was done all over the South before Bradford wrote his song in 1919.
Simple moves were created by natural movements, like the stomp was to imitate a cow's feet stuck in mud."
-snip-
That video includes a brief clip of two young Black boys doing some dancing movements that are labeled the Black Bottom by that film's narrator.[.57-1.06]. The sub-title at 1.07-1.08 reads "The colored kids got it from a cow stuck in the mud".*
That film clip also shows two young Black girls doing some movements that are said to be the Black Bottom.[Unfortunately, only the top portions of their bodies are shown. [4:21-4:27]
*"Colored" is a no longer used referent for all African Americans regardless of their skin color. That referent largely ceased being used in the 1960s & 1970s.
"It" in that sentence means "the movements to the Black Bottom dance". "From a cow stuck in the mud" means "imitating the foot movements of a cow stuck in the mud". Of course, this isn't meant to be taken seriously, although many African American dances were created by imitating birds or specific animals.
Was the "Echo" dance "that was done all over the South before Bradford wrote his song in 1919" a more socially acceptable name for the Coonjine?
****
Note: The following excerpt from the 1886 magazine article points out the improvisational, open ended nature of counjaille songs and improvisational nature of the counjaille dance.
George W. Cable, "Creole Slave Dances: The Dance in Place Congo" (published in The Century Magazine, Vol. 31, Nr. 4 [February 1886], pp. 517-532)
Quoted in http://www.angelpig.com/congo9.html "The Dance In Place Congo" New Orleans [p. 9]
"V. COUNJAILLE
“Suddenly the song changes. The rhythm sweeps away long and smooth like a river escaping from its rapids, and in new spirit, with louder drum beats and more jocund rattles, the voices roll up into the sky and the dancers are at it. Aye yai yi!
I could give four verses, but let one suffice; it is from a manuscript copy of the words, probably a hundred years old that fell into my hands through the courtesy of an old Creole lady…The counjaille was never complete, and found its end, for the time being in the caprice of its improviser, whose rich, stentorian voice sounded alone between the refrains. But while we discourse other couples have stepped into the grassy area and the instrumental din has risen to a fresh height of inspiration, the posing, the thigh-beating, the breast-patting and chanting and swinging and writhing has risen, and the song has changed.
But the dance has not changed, and love is still the theme. Sweat streaks from black brows, down the shining black necks and throats, upon men’s bare chest, and unto dark, unstayed bosoms. Time wares, shadows lengthen; but the movement is brisker than ever, and the big feet and the bent shanks, are as light as thistles on the air. Let one flag, another has his place, and a new song gives vehemence, new inventions in steps, turns, and attitudes."
****
From Google News
The Milwaukee Journal - Jul 15, 1931, p. 9
“When Negroes Did The Coonjine Down Ole Mississippi Gangplanks”
Singing songs as they shuffled along made the totin’ easier and made the Roustabouts forget their troubles, Tunes created to fit the occassion.
“Now coonjine ~the name of that swinging, slouchy loose kneed, dance of the negro roustabouts up and down the Mississippi steamboat's” [planks’?]*
*The word in brackets wasn't visible in the online version of that newspaper article.
Note that approved spelling for the word "Negro" is with an upper class case "n" since at least the early 1960s. However, some Black Americans spell that word with a lower case "n" to refer to a Black person who acts like an "Uncle Tom".
****
EDITORIAL COMMENT:
Why aren't counjaille and coonjine songs and dances more widely known or at least known as much as other Caribbean and African American vernacular dances such as the Calinda, and African American dances such as the Cake Walk, the Black Bottom, the Charleston, and The Shimmy? Filmed examples of those other listed African American vernacular dances from the 18th century and 19th century/early 20th century dances can be found on YouTube. There are at least two historical film clips of the cake walk on YouTube. There are also several film clips of White dancers from the early to mid twentieth century performing those other dances - but, regrettably, I've not yet found any film clips of Black people performing those other dances. However, to date, I've not found any song or dance examples of the counjaille or the coonjine on YouTube.
In my opinion, the main reason why so little information is known nowadays about "coonjine" songs & dances is that song & dance name itself.
The word "coonjine" and its alternate name "coonshine" begin with the problematic syllable "coon". That word evokes distrubing and stigmatizing images of Black slavery and black faced minstrelsy. I admit that until faily recently I shied away from reading anything about black-faced minstrelsy and just the names "coonjine" or "coonshine" would have been a big turn off for me. And I don't think that I'm the only Black person who has this gut distaste for and avoidance of anything that is even slightly related to "minstrelsy". For example, I used to avoid any songs or isntrumentals that featured banjos. Thanks in large part to the contemporary African American Old Time music group The Carolina Chocolate Drops, I've begun to explore that music and actually (surprisingly for me) like much of it. But I still cringe when I read about that Old Time music because I know that I may come across what is now called "the n word" and such examples of 19th Black dialectic English as "gwine" and "massa".
While some "coonjine" songs & dances influenced White blackfaced minstrelsy -and also Black blacfaced minstrelsy- "coonjine" songs were much more than material for those performers.
And it should be admitted that some but not all Southern Black Americans used the word "coon" as a self-referent and a group referent in the 19th century. However, I don't think that most Black Americans that time, used "coon" that way. Certainly, Black people who were trying to "raise the race" and/or Black people who wanted to be considered more acceptable by White people wouldn't have been happy that "coonjine"/coonshine" was included that "coon" syllable.
The word "coonshine" may have started out as a form of the word "coonjine" (which itself probably is derived from the word "counjaille". However, I believe the vernacular connotations of the word "shine" as it related to Black people is another reason why the name "coonshine"/"coonjine" was retired for those dances and songs.
"Shine" is the name of an anti-hero in African American [usually bawdy] narratives called "toasts". One relatively well known example of those toasts is "Shine And The Titanic".*
The character's name "Shine" and the use of the word "shine" as an informal referent for Black men probably was coined because of the erroneous belief that dark black skin shone like blue-black shoe polish.
Also, White people may have shied away from the name "coonjine" because the syllable “coon” in that dance was the same as the vernacular referent for Black people and that term was too lower class and too reminiscent of plantation South for White "polite society."
I also wonder if the similarity of the word "coonshine" to the colloquial word for liquor "moonshine" may have contributed to that lack of acceptance of the name "coonshine" among White people and Black people. "Moonshine" evokes images of White hillbillies, and that group of people were looked down on by other White people, contributing to the connotation of "coonshine" as a lower class name for that dance.
However, while Black people-eventually retired the "coonjine" dance name, they continued or adapted that dance's movements under a different name or names. (I'm not sure if White people ever knew enough about that vernacular dance to be said to have eeventually dropped its' name.)
For instance, I wonder if the Black Bottom was a slowed down version of the Coonjine. After all, both of these 19th century dances are said to have originated in Louisiana. Notice how in the following excerpt the Black Bottom is said to have been based on an "old dance".
*Click http://www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/Articles_Essays/creole_art_toast_tradition.html for commentary about African American toasts and a "clean" examples of "Shine And The Titanic".
Also, it seems to me that another reason why Coonjine didn't become a White dance craze [at least not under that name.], probably for the reasons I gave in point #1. Note that almost always the term “dance craze” in the United States refers to dances that White people pick up & modify from Black people. There don't appear to be any films of White people or Black people doing the Coonjine. - prior to the Lindy Hop/Swing era, Black dancers were rarely filmed doing vernacular dances.
Furthermore, for the most part, African Americans aren’t good at preserving, honoring, and disseminating information about our cultural history. In astrology terms, Black people are far more Uranian than we are Saturnian, meaning we are much more interested in innovating new dances and other cultural forms, including new forms of old dances, than we are in preserving old forms.
Thanks to all those who sung & danced the Counjaille and the Coonjine.
Thanks also to those who are quoted in this post.
Thanks for visiting pancocojam.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Black & White Versions Of "Charley He's A Dandy"
Edited by Azizi Powell
This post provides examples of the song "Charley He's A Dandy" from Black American & White American culture.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, and recreational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who composed this song and are mentioned in this post.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT THIS SONG
"Charley He's A Dandy" is an alternative title for play party songs that may be most often known as "Weevily Wheat". Those songs are also known as "Four In The Middle", "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss”, "Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees", and "Over The River (or "The Water") To Charley".
Links to some other pancocojams posts about those songs are found in the Related Links section below.
"Charlie's A Dandy" is an example of a Southern & Appalachian play party song that has both Black versions & White versions. In the rare event that any racial demographics are given online for these songs, they are using only attributed to White Americans. That attribution ignores the extensive cross pollination that occurred between Black & White Southern & Appalachian residents regarding dance tunes & songs, play party songs, and minstrel songs.
In 1967 when I first happened upon Thomas W. Talley's 1922 book Negro Folk Songs: Wise & Otherwise, I thought that the inclusion of those songs or rhymes in that book meant that African Americans originally composed all of those examples "from scratch", without those songs being based, inspired by, or were portions of any previously composed song. I now know that that assumption is just as much mistaken as the belief that no Southern or Appalacian American secular dance or play party song was created in whole or in part by Black Americans.
****
TEXT EXAMPLES OF "CHARLEY'S HE'S A DANDY" SONGS
Example #1:
From http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27195/27195-h/27195-h.htm electronic book version of Thomas W. Talley's 1922 book Negro Folk Rhymes [pages 84-85]
HE LOVES SUGAR AND TEA
Mistah Buster, he loves sugar an' tea.
Mistah Buster, he loves candy.
Mistah Buster, he's a Jim-dandy!
He can swing dem gals so handy.
Charlie's up an' Charlie's down.
Charlie's fine an' dandy.
Ev'ry time he goes to town,
He gits dem gals stick candy.
Dat N***ah, he love sugar an' tea.
Dat N***ah love dat candy.
Fine N***ah He can wheel 'em 'round,
An' swing dem ladies handy.
Mistah Sambo, he love sugar an' tea.
Mistah Sambo love his candy.
Mistah Sambo; he's dat han'some man
What goes wid sister Mandy.
-snip-
Editor's comments
The n word
What is now known as "the n word" was fully spelled out in this example.
**
"jim-dandy"
From http://www.thefreedictionary.com/jim-dandy
"One that is very pleasing or excellent of its kind.
Jim (nickname for James) + dandy."
From http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jim-dandy
"Jim-dandy! First Known Use: 1887: something excellent of its kind"
Simply put, using contemporary African American colloquialism, a "dandy" is a "sharp dresser", a man who is very attentive to fashion.
The word "dandy" may have come from the 1843 minstrel song “Dandy Jim from Caroline”. Click http://www.pdmusic.org/1800s/43djoc.txt for lyrics for that song. WARNING: Lyrics Include a form of the n word.
Note that the name "Jim Dandy" and the name "Dandy Jim" probably influenced the title of 1960s R&B Jim Dandy songs such as "Jim Dandy To The Rescue". However, the characterization of the "Jim Dandy" in those 1960s songs is different from the older characterizations.
****
UPDATE: March 23, 2015
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixty_Minute_Man
..."Bragging about sexual prowess was a feature of the "hokum" style of early blues recordings. The reference to "Dan" (alternatively, "Jim Dandy") dates back at least to minstrel shows in the nineteenth century. A common reference was to "Dan, the Back Door Man" - the lover of a married woman who would leave her house by the back door - as in a song of that title recorded by Georgia White in 1937."
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/03/take-it-easy-greasy-dan-back-door-man.html
for a post on two dirty Blues songs "Take It Easy, Greasy" & "Dan, The Back Door Man".
****
Example #2:
From http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=97222
"Origins: Weevily Wheat"
CHARLIE'S SWEET
From EFFSA Cecil Sharp
Sung by Mrs. Laura V. Donald
Dewy Va. June 10, 1918
As I come over we trip together,
It's in the morning early.
Heart and hand I give to thee,
So true I love thee dearly.
I won't have none of your weavil wheat,
And I won't have none of your barley.
Give to me the good old wheat,
To bake a cake for Charlie.
Charlie he's a nice young man,
Charlie he's a dandy.
Charlie he's the very one
That sold his daddy's brandy.
I've got a sweet little wife,
A wife of my own choosing.
Hug her neat and kiss her sweet,
And no more go a-courting.
-snip-
Editor's note:
"Trip together" probably means "skip together".
A number of other lyrics of this song are found on that Mudcat discussion thread.
****
Example #3:
From http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/coffee-grows-on-white-oak-trees.aspx [No date given]
FOUR IN THE MIDDLE; COFFEE GROWS ON WHITE OAK TREES
Sung by: Emma Puterbaugh Medlin
Listen: http://web.lyon.edu/wolfcollection/songs/medlincoffee1261.mp3
Coffee grows on white oak trees,
The river flows with brandy o’er.
Go choose you one to roam with you,
As sweet as sugar and candy, too.
Rally-ally-um-bum, sugar and tea.
Rally-ally-um-bum, candy.
Rally-ally-um-bum, sugar and tea,
Swing your little miss so handy.
Handy, handy, handy
Candy, candy, candy.
NOTES [from that link] : "This is part of the large Western Country family of songs that includes “Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss," "Four in the Middle" and “Wheevily Wheat.” The versions from Wolf Folklore collected in the 1950s and 1960s are listed Coffee Grows (Four in the Middle) showing the relationship with the play-party song "Four in the Middle." Also found in Randolph, Vol. III, #524, "Four in the Middle"; Brown, Vol. III, #78, "Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees." Randolph's Ozark version gives the tune as "Skip to My Lou."..."
****
FEATURED SOUND FILE
Ray Heatherton - Weevily Wheat
boyjohn, Uploaded on Sep 3, 2010
From the Playtime records 78 rpm #369.
-snip-
"Weevily wheat" means wheat that has weevils in it.
****
RELATED LINK
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/08/coffee-grows-on-white-oak-trees-four-in.html
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This post provides examples of the song "Charley He's A Dandy" from Black American & White American culture.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, and recreational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who composed this song and are mentioned in this post.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT THIS SONG
"Charley He's A Dandy" is an alternative title for play party songs that may be most often known as "Weevily Wheat". Those songs are also known as "Four In The Middle", "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss”, "Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees", and "Over The River (or "The Water") To Charley".
Links to some other pancocojams posts about those songs are found in the Related Links section below.
"Charlie's A Dandy" is an example of a Southern & Appalachian play party song that has both Black versions & White versions. In the rare event that any racial demographics are given online for these songs, they are using only attributed to White Americans. That attribution ignores the extensive cross pollination that occurred between Black & White Southern & Appalachian residents regarding dance tunes & songs, play party songs, and minstrel songs.
In 1967 when I first happened upon Thomas W. Talley's 1922 book Negro Folk Songs: Wise & Otherwise, I thought that the inclusion of those songs or rhymes in that book meant that African Americans originally composed all of those examples "from scratch", without those songs being based, inspired by, or were portions of any previously composed song. I now know that that assumption is just as much mistaken as the belief that no Southern or Appalacian American secular dance or play party song was created in whole or in part by Black Americans.
****
TEXT EXAMPLES OF "CHARLEY'S HE'S A DANDY" SONGS
Example #1:
From http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27195/27195-h/27195-h.htm electronic book version of Thomas W. Talley's 1922 book Negro Folk Rhymes [pages 84-85]
HE LOVES SUGAR AND TEA
Mistah Buster, he loves sugar an' tea.
Mistah Buster, he loves candy.
Mistah Buster, he's a Jim-dandy!
He can swing dem gals so handy.
Charlie's up an' Charlie's down.
Charlie's fine an' dandy.
Ev'ry time he goes to town,
He gits dem gals stick candy.
Dat N***ah, he love sugar an' tea.
Dat N***ah love dat candy.
Fine N***ah He can wheel 'em 'round,
An' swing dem ladies handy.
Mistah Sambo, he love sugar an' tea.
Mistah Sambo love his candy.
Mistah Sambo; he's dat han'some man
What goes wid sister Mandy.
-snip-
Editor's comments
The n word
What is now known as "the n word" was fully spelled out in this example.
**
"jim-dandy"
From http://www.thefreedictionary.com/jim-dandy
"One that is very pleasing or excellent of its kind.
Jim (nickname for James) + dandy."
From http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jim-dandy
"Jim-dandy! First Known Use: 1887: something excellent of its kind"
Simply put, using contemporary African American colloquialism, a "dandy" is a "sharp dresser", a man who is very attentive to fashion.
The word "dandy" may have come from the 1843 minstrel song “Dandy Jim from Caroline”. Click http://www.pdmusic.org/1800s/43djoc.txt for lyrics for that song. WARNING: Lyrics Include a form of the n word.
Note that the name "Jim Dandy" and the name "Dandy Jim" probably influenced the title of 1960s R&B Jim Dandy songs such as "Jim Dandy To The Rescue". However, the characterization of the "Jim Dandy" in those 1960s songs is different from the older characterizations.
****
UPDATE: March 23, 2015
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixty_Minute_Man
..."Bragging about sexual prowess was a feature of the "hokum" style of early blues recordings. The reference to "Dan" (alternatively, "Jim Dandy") dates back at least to minstrel shows in the nineteenth century. A common reference was to "Dan, the Back Door Man" - the lover of a married woman who would leave her house by the back door - as in a song of that title recorded by Georgia White in 1937."
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/03/take-it-easy-greasy-dan-back-door-man.html
for a post on two dirty Blues songs "Take It Easy, Greasy" & "Dan, The Back Door Man".
****
Example #2:
From http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=97222
"Origins: Weevily Wheat"
CHARLIE'S SWEET
From EFFSA Cecil Sharp
Sung by Mrs. Laura V. Donald
Dewy Va. June 10, 1918
As I come over we trip together,
It's in the morning early.
Heart and hand I give to thee,
So true I love thee dearly.
I won't have none of your weavil wheat,
And I won't have none of your barley.
Give to me the good old wheat,
To bake a cake for Charlie.
Charlie he's a nice young man,
Charlie he's a dandy.
Charlie he's the very one
That sold his daddy's brandy.
I've got a sweet little wife,
A wife of my own choosing.
Hug her neat and kiss her sweet,
And no more go a-courting.
-snip-
Editor's note:
"Trip together" probably means "skip together".
A number of other lyrics of this song are found on that Mudcat discussion thread.
****
Example #3:
From http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/coffee-grows-on-white-oak-trees.aspx [No date given]
FOUR IN THE MIDDLE; COFFEE GROWS ON WHITE OAK TREES
Sung by: Emma Puterbaugh Medlin
Listen: http://web.lyon.edu/wolfcollection/songs/medlincoffee1261.mp3
Coffee grows on white oak trees,
The river flows with brandy o’er.
Go choose you one to roam with you,
As sweet as sugar and candy, too.
Rally-ally-um-bum, sugar and tea.
Rally-ally-um-bum, candy.
Rally-ally-um-bum, sugar and tea,
Swing your little miss so handy.
Handy, handy, handy
Candy, candy, candy.
NOTES [from that link] : "This is part of the large Western Country family of songs that includes “Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss," "Four in the Middle" and “Wheevily Wheat.” The versions from Wolf Folklore collected in the 1950s and 1960s are listed Coffee Grows (Four in the Middle) showing the relationship with the play-party song "Four in the Middle." Also found in Randolph, Vol. III, #524, "Four in the Middle"; Brown, Vol. III, #78, "Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees." Randolph's Ozark version gives the tune as "Skip to My Lou."..."
****
FEATURED SOUND FILE
Ray Heatherton - Weevily Wheat
boyjohn, Uploaded on Sep 3, 2010
From the Playtime records 78 rpm #369.
-snip-
"Weevily wheat" means wheat that has weevils in it.
****
RELATED LINK
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/08/coffee-grows-on-white-oak-trees-four-in.html
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Friday, August 16, 2013
Coffee Grows On White Folks' Trees (example & comments)
Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part II of a two part pancocojams series of posts on the song "Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees" (also known as "Four In The Middle").
This post presents an example of and comments about a parody of "Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees". That parody is entitled "Coffee Grows On White Folks Trees" and is found in Thomas W. Talley's 1922 collection Negro Folk Rhymes: Wise & Otherwise.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/08/coffee-grows-on-white-oak-trees-four-in.html for Part I of this series.
Part I provides information about and examples of the song "Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees" (also known as "Four In The Middle").
Part I is a companion piece to http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/08/examples-of-dance-josey-cant-dance.html and
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/08/chicken-in-fence-post-information-lyrics.html
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, and recreational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
****
GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THIS SONG
It's more comfortable for Americans to picture enslaved Black people as passive folk who only sung sorrow songs (Spirituals) and work songs. However, a study of some of the
examples found in Thomas W. Talley's collection Negro Folk Songs: Wise & Otherwise will correct that misconception.
There's no doubt that "Coffee Grows On White Folks' Trees" is a parody of the play party song "Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees".
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parody
"A parody (/ˈpærədi/; also called spoof, send-up or lampoon), in current use, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on or trivialise[citation needed] an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of satiric or ironic imitation."
Fisk University professor Thomas W. Talley wrote that the examples that he featured in his book Negro Folk Rhymes were compiled from his memory (as an African American) and from the recollections of his African American students. Although Talley indicated that some of the songs were quite old, others were certainly composed post-emancipation. Given that "Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees" may have been composed before the end of slavery in the United States, this parody of that song probably was also composed around that same time.
****
LYRICS: COFFEE GROWS ON WHITE FOLKS TREES
Coffee grows on w'ite folks' trees,
But de N****r can git dat w'en he please.
De w'ite folks loves deir milk an' brandy,
But dat black gal's sweeter dan 'lasses candy.
Coffee grows on w'ite folks trees,
An' dere's a river dat runs wid milk an' brandy.
De rocks is broke an' filled wid gold,
So dat yaller gal loves dat high-hat dandy.
From Negro Folk Rhymes Wise & Otherwise by Thomas W. Tally of Frisk University, Originally published By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY New York, circa 1922
Online book http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/negro-folk-rhymes/ [P.107]
****
EDITOR'S NOTES
In the first verse, the speaker brags about how Black people can bests White people. The speaker also compares White folk's fondness for milk & brandy to the sweetness of Black women.
The second verse may be a reference to Heaven and/or a symbolic representation of the River of Jordan, perhaps with the implication that although White people may have the power down on earth, they don't rule Heaven -
and Black people will have just as much access to the wonders of Heaven as White people have.
Here are explanations of certain words in that song:
The n word:
What is now known as "the n word" was fully spelled out in that song. As evidenced in that and other songs, some 19th century & early 20th century Black people used that word as an colloquial referent for themselves and other Black people. However, not all 19th Black Americans used that referent for themselves and/or other Black people. Furthermore, it seems to me, that that referent is even more pejorative now than it was in the 19th and early 20th century.
**
yaller gal
A light skin Black woman; Light skinned Black women were usually depicted in 19th/early 20th century African American folk rhymes as being "stuck up" (status conscious), hence the reference to that woman wanting a high hat dandy.
**
high hat dandy
A high hot dandy is a man interested in being fashionable who wears top hats.
From http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dandy
"A man who affects extreme elegance in clothes and manners; a fop."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_hat
"A top hat, beaver hat, high hat, silk hat, cylinder hat, chimney pot hat or stove pipe hat[1] (sometimes also known by the nickname "topper") is a tall, flat-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, predominantly worn from the latter part of the 18th to the middle of the 20th century. As of the early 21st century, it is usually worn only with morning dress or white tie, in dressage, as servants' or doormen's livery, or as a fashion statement. The top hat is sometimes associated with the upper class, becoming a target for satirists and social critics"
****
Thanks to the composers of these featured songs & thanks to Thomas W. Talley for collecting it. Thanks also to those who are quoted in this post.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This is Part II of a two part pancocojams series of posts on the song "Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees" (also known as "Four In The Middle").
This post presents an example of and comments about a parody of "Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees". That parody is entitled "Coffee Grows On White Folks Trees" and is found in Thomas W. Talley's 1922 collection Negro Folk Rhymes: Wise & Otherwise.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/08/coffee-grows-on-white-oak-trees-four-in.html for Part I of this series.
Part I provides information about and examples of the song "Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees" (also known as "Four In The Middle").
Part I is a companion piece to http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/08/examples-of-dance-josey-cant-dance.html and
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/08/chicken-in-fence-post-information-lyrics.html
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, and recreational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
****
GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THIS SONG
It's more comfortable for Americans to picture enslaved Black people as passive folk who only sung sorrow songs (Spirituals) and work songs. However, a study of some of the
examples found in Thomas W. Talley's collection Negro Folk Songs: Wise & Otherwise will correct that misconception.
There's no doubt that "Coffee Grows On White Folks' Trees" is a parody of the play party song "Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees".
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parody
"A parody (/ˈpærədi/; also called spoof, send-up or lampoon), in current use, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on or trivialise[citation needed] an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of satiric or ironic imitation."
Fisk University professor Thomas W. Talley wrote that the examples that he featured in his book Negro Folk Rhymes were compiled from his memory (as an African American) and from the recollections of his African American students. Although Talley indicated that some of the songs were quite old, others were certainly composed post-emancipation. Given that "Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees" may have been composed before the end of slavery in the United States, this parody of that song probably was also composed around that same time.
****
LYRICS: COFFEE GROWS ON WHITE FOLKS TREES
Coffee grows on w'ite folks' trees,
But de N****r can git dat w'en he please.
De w'ite folks loves deir milk an' brandy,
But dat black gal's sweeter dan 'lasses candy.
Coffee grows on w'ite folks trees,
An' dere's a river dat runs wid milk an' brandy.
De rocks is broke an' filled wid gold,
So dat yaller gal loves dat high-hat dandy.
From Negro Folk Rhymes Wise & Otherwise by Thomas W. Tally of Frisk University, Originally published By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY New York, circa 1922
Online book http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/negro-folk-rhymes/ [P.107]
****
EDITOR'S NOTES
In the first verse, the speaker brags about how Black people can bests White people. The speaker also compares White folk's fondness for milk & brandy to the sweetness of Black women.
The second verse may be a reference to Heaven and/or a symbolic representation of the River of Jordan, perhaps with the implication that although White people may have the power down on earth, they don't rule Heaven -
and Black people will have just as much access to the wonders of Heaven as White people have.
Here are explanations of certain words in that song:
The n word:
What is now known as "the n word" was fully spelled out in that song. As evidenced in that and other songs, some 19th century & early 20th century Black people used that word as an colloquial referent for themselves and other Black people. However, not all 19th Black Americans used that referent for themselves and/or other Black people. Furthermore, it seems to me, that that referent is even more pejorative now than it was in the 19th and early 20th century.
**
yaller gal
A light skin Black woman; Light skinned Black women were usually depicted in 19th/early 20th century African American folk rhymes as being "stuck up" (status conscious), hence the reference to that woman wanting a high hat dandy.
**
high hat dandy
A high hot dandy is a man interested in being fashionable who wears top hats.
From http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dandy
"A man who affects extreme elegance in clothes and manners; a fop."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_hat
"A top hat, beaver hat, high hat, silk hat, cylinder hat, chimney pot hat or stove pipe hat[1] (sometimes also known by the nickname "topper") is a tall, flat-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, predominantly worn from the latter part of the 18th to the middle of the 20th century. As of the early 21st century, it is usually worn only with morning dress or white tie, in dressage, as servants' or doormen's livery, or as a fashion statement. The top hat is sometimes associated with the upper class, becoming a target for satirists and social critics"
****
Thanks to the composers of these featured songs & thanks to Thomas W. Talley for collecting it. Thanks also to those who are quoted in this post.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees (Four In The Middle), examples & comments
Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part I of a two part pancocojams series of posts on the song "Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees" (also known as "Four In The Middle").
This post presents information about & examples of those songs.
Part II presents an example of and comments about a parody of "Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees". That parody is entitled "Coffee Grows On White Folks Trees" and is found in Thomas W. Talley's 1922 collection Negro Folk Rhymes: Wise & Otherwise.
Part I is a companion piece to http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/08/examples-of-dance-josey-cant-dance.html and
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/08/chicken-in-fence-post-information-lyrics.html
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, and recreational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
****
GENERAL OVERVIEW OF "COFFEE GROWS ON WHITE OAK TREES"
"Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees" ("CGOWOT") is a 19th century American play party song that -given its YouTube entries- appears to be quite popular not only as a fiddle tune but as a song sung by high school and other chamber choirs.
The play party song "Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees" is also known as "Four In The Middle" and "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss” among other titles. Those titles are derived from lyrics found in those songs. Verses from "Coffee Grows On White Oak", including the verse that contains those particular lyrics, are also found in other play party songs.
****
WHAT THE WORDS "COFFEE GROWS ON WHITE OAK TREES" MEAN
During my research on this song, I came across an online comment which explained the meaning of the words "Coffee grows on white oak trees". Unfortunately, I can't find that website. However, I recall that the author indicated that those words referred to the use by Southerners of acorns from White Oak trees as a substitute for coffee during the Civil War. That acorns from White Oak trees could be used that way is confirmed by this quote which I later came across:
"Processing Wild Acorns as Food
...Ground and roasted white oak acorns made a good coffee substitute and was used by the pioneers for just such a purpose. Though they taste like coffee, they lack caffeine, so you can drink till your hearts content and not get the coffee jitters. White oak acorns are much lower in tannin and thus more desirable.”
http://syzygyastro.hubpages.com/hub/Wild-Acorns-as-Food
****
GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT PLAY PARTY SONGS
From http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/lhf01
Texas State Historical Association – Folk Music
"...Another folk song-and-dance tradition is the play party. Many early Texas settlers were fundamentalists who believed that dancing and fiddle music were sinful. They satisfied the universal urge to move to music with the play party, which was song-accompanied dance that allowed no instruments. They called their rhythmical group movements "marches" or "games," they danced in rings or in longways formations but never in squares, and they swung each other by hand, never by the waist. They used many popular dance tunes—"Old Clark," "Old Dan Tucker," "The Gal I Left Behind Me," "Willis in the Ballroom"—but because of the lack of instrumental music, the words became all-important. Play-party songs have preserved many stanzas that were lost in the fiddle-dance tradition. A play party usually began with a choosing game such as "Needle's Eye" or "Hog Drovers," then progressed to ring-game songs like "Saro Jane" or "Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees," and in full swing went into longways dances like "Weevily Wheat," "Little Brass Wagon," and "Baltimore." Play parties were not only popular among fundamentalists; they were necessary when no musician was around. In spite of the reservations laid on the players by their elders, play-party songs and formations were just as joyful and exuberant as their sinful fiddling square-dance counterparts."
-snip-
Note that some versions of "Weevily Wheat” include “Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees” verses.
****
TEXT EXAMPLES OF "COFFEE GROWS ON WHITE OAK TREES" (FOUR IN THE MIDDLE)
A number of play party versions of "Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees”/"Four In The Middle" can be found online. Here are two examples with performance instructions. (Remember that performance instructions for this song may vary among examples.)
Text Example #1: Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees
From http://www.ibiblio.org/jimmy/folkden-wp/?p=6920
Roger McGuinn - In The Folk Tradition
Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees [includes musical notations]
"This is a Southwestern play-party song. Play party songs were designed to protect young people from the evil business of square dancing. Any number of couples would join hands and form a ring. The ladies would march around a single man and sing the first part of the song at a slow tempo. The man would chose a partner from the ring and the dancers would skip around them singing 'Two in the middle and I can't dance Josie.' This would continue until all couples were In the center. They would swing left and Right.
Lyrics:
[D] Coffee grows on white [Bm] Oak trees
[D] The river flows with [Em] brandy O[A]
[D] Go choose someone to [Bm] roam with you
[Em] Sweet as lasses [A] candy O
[D] Two in the middle and I [Bm] can't dance Josie
[D] Two in the middle and I [C] can't get [A] around
[D] Two in the middle and I [Bm] can't dance Josie
[G] Hello [A] Susan [D] Brown
Four in the middle and I can't dance Josie
Four in the middle and I can't get around
Four in the middle and I can't dance Josie
Hello Susan Brown
[D] Railroad, [F#m] steamboat, [Bm] river and [G] canal
I lost my [Em] true love on that [A] raging canal [D]
[D] O she's gone, gone, gone,
O she's gone, gone, gone, [A]
O she's gone on that ragin' [D] canal (X2)
Fiddler's drunk and I can't dance Josie
Fiddler's drunk and I can't get around
Fiddler's drunk and I can't dance Josie
Hello Susan Brown
Cow in the well and can't jump Josie
Cow in the well and can't get around
Cow in the well and can't jump Josie
Hello Susan Brown
Railroad, steamboat, river and canal
I lost my true love on that ragin' canal
O she's gone, gone, gone,
O she's gone, gone, gone,
O she's gone on that ragin' canal
(X2)
-snip-
"Josie" here refers to a type of couple's dance.
****
Text Example #2: FOUR IN THE MIDDLE
From http://web.lyon.edu/wolfcollection/songs/escuecoffee1242.html
Sung by: Jack Escue
Recorded in Sidney, AR 8/30/57
Coffee grows on a white oak tree,
River flows with brandy,
Choose you one as we go out,
Sweet as 'lasses candy.
There's four in the middle,
And you'd better get around.
There's four in the middle,
And you'd better get around.
There's four in the middle
And you'd better get around,
For I love my Susie Brown.
Six in the middle,
And you'd better get around.
There's six in the middle
And you'd better get around.
Six in the middle
And you'd better get around,
For I love my Susie Brown.
Now we're all in the middle,
And you'd better get around.
We're all in the middle
And you'd better get around.
We're all in the middle
And you'd better get around,
For I love my Susie Brown.
(Mr. Escue: "In this sing and play, they're all around a circle. They're going 'round and 'round and there's a extra boy and a girl in the center of the ring, and when it comes to choose your partner, why, each one of them chooses another boy and another girl, and they swing by the right, and back by the left, and on around. And then another couple joins in when it says six in the middle and they do the same thing. Swing them by the right and then back by the left, and then when you sing all in the middle, that means all eight is in there a-swinging with the right and then with the left. And that's the way you do that.")
Also found in Randolph, Vol. III, #524, "Four in the Middle"; Brown, Vol. III, #78, "Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees."
Click http://web.lyon.edu/wolfcollection/songs/escuecoffee1242.mp3 for this recording.
****
FEATURED VIDEO EXAMPLES (Choir Renditions)
Video Example #1: Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees
Lincoln High School Choirs, Published on Oct 22, 2015
Bella Voce performs Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees. Part of the Choral Preview Concert on October 21, 2015.
-snip-
This video replaces the one that was originally embedded in this post, but is no longer available.
****
Video Example #2: Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees
David Fazzini, Published on May 2, 2013
2013 Notre Dame Prep High School Women's Ensemble sings Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees arranged by William R. Fischer. This was recorded at State Festival in the Rochester High school auditorium. The chorus earned an excellent rating with this performance. David Fazzini (director), Jessica Zelinski (accompanist)
****
PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR COMMENT
In the rare event that any racial demographics are given online for "Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees" ("Four In The Middle"), those songs are usually only attributed to White Americans. That attribution ignores the extensive cross pollination that occurred between Black & White Southern & Appalachian residents regarding dance tunes & songs, play party songs, and minstrel songs. With regard to the song that is the focus of this post, the fact that African American folklorist Thomas W. Tally included a parody of "Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees" [whose title is "Coffee Grows On White Folks' Trees"] in his 1922 collection of Negro Folk Songs serves as documentation that Black folks knew that "CGOWOT" song.
****
BONUS VIDEO
Here's a video of a related folk song entitled "Weevily Wheat":
140 0818 [Weevily Wheat/Four In The Middle]
vanvalinv, Published on Dec 3, 2012
This song should be done in groups of four people. For the Weevily Wheat part of the song, you can hold hands and swing them, OR hold hands and walk in a circle going left, then right. For the multiplication part of the song, you pile hands on top of each other then release from the bottom of the pile.
-snip-
This rendition of "Weevily Wheat" shows why that song is sometimes also called "Four In The Middle".
Click http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=97222
"Origins: Weevily Wheat" for a discussion about "Weevily Wheat"/"Four In The Middle" songs. Some of those songs include the "Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees" verse. Here's an excerpt from one of those comments which was posted by Goose Gander, 15 Dec 06 - 08:28 PM :
"Amzie Casner Tabor of Trinidad, Colorado, remembered this from around 1900 as a dance like a Virginia reel to teach children their multiplication tables." [then includes the lyrics]
-snip-
This and another comment on that discussion thread imply that
the multiplication lyrics were a later addition on to that song.
****
Thanks to the composers & collectors of these featured songs. Thanks also to those who are quoted in this post, those who are featured in these videos, and those who published these videeos on YouTube.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This is Part I of a two part pancocojams series of posts on the song "Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees" (also known as "Four In The Middle").
This post presents information about & examples of those songs.
Part II presents an example of and comments about a parody of "Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees". That parody is entitled "Coffee Grows On White Folks Trees" and is found in Thomas W. Talley's 1922 collection Negro Folk Rhymes: Wise & Otherwise.
Part I is a companion piece to http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/08/examples-of-dance-josey-cant-dance.html and
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/08/chicken-in-fence-post-information-lyrics.html
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, and recreational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
****
GENERAL OVERVIEW OF "COFFEE GROWS ON WHITE OAK TREES"
"Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees" ("CGOWOT") is a 19th century American play party song that -given its YouTube entries- appears to be quite popular not only as a fiddle tune but as a song sung by high school and other chamber choirs.
The play party song "Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees" is also known as "Four In The Middle" and "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss” among other titles. Those titles are derived from lyrics found in those songs. Verses from "Coffee Grows On White Oak", including the verse that contains those particular lyrics, are also found in other play party songs.
****
WHAT THE WORDS "COFFEE GROWS ON WHITE OAK TREES" MEAN
During my research on this song, I came across an online comment which explained the meaning of the words "Coffee grows on white oak trees". Unfortunately, I can't find that website. However, I recall that the author indicated that those words referred to the use by Southerners of acorns from White Oak trees as a substitute for coffee during the Civil War. That acorns from White Oak trees could be used that way is confirmed by this quote which I later came across:
"Processing Wild Acorns as Food
...Ground and roasted white oak acorns made a good coffee substitute and was used by the pioneers for just such a purpose. Though they taste like coffee, they lack caffeine, so you can drink till your hearts content and not get the coffee jitters. White oak acorns are much lower in tannin and thus more desirable.”
http://syzygyastro.hubpages.com/hub/Wild-Acorns-as-Food
****
GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT PLAY PARTY SONGS
From http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/lhf01
Texas State Historical Association – Folk Music
"...Another folk song-and-dance tradition is the play party. Many early Texas settlers were fundamentalists who believed that dancing and fiddle music were sinful. They satisfied the universal urge to move to music with the play party, which was song-accompanied dance that allowed no instruments. They called their rhythmical group movements "marches" or "games," they danced in rings or in longways formations but never in squares, and they swung each other by hand, never by the waist. They used many popular dance tunes—"Old Clark," "Old Dan Tucker," "The Gal I Left Behind Me," "Willis in the Ballroom"—but because of the lack of instrumental music, the words became all-important. Play-party songs have preserved many stanzas that were lost in the fiddle-dance tradition. A play party usually began with a choosing game such as "Needle's Eye" or "Hog Drovers," then progressed to ring-game songs like "Saro Jane" or "Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees," and in full swing went into longways dances like "Weevily Wheat," "Little Brass Wagon," and "Baltimore." Play parties were not only popular among fundamentalists; they were necessary when no musician was around. In spite of the reservations laid on the players by their elders, play-party songs and formations were just as joyful and exuberant as their sinful fiddling square-dance counterparts."
-snip-
Note that some versions of "Weevily Wheat” include “Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees” verses.
****
TEXT EXAMPLES OF "COFFEE GROWS ON WHITE OAK TREES" (FOUR IN THE MIDDLE)
A number of play party versions of "Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees”/"Four In The Middle" can be found online. Here are two examples with performance instructions. (Remember that performance instructions for this song may vary among examples.)
Text Example #1: Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees
From http://www.ibiblio.org/jimmy/folkden-wp/?p=6920
Roger McGuinn - In The Folk Tradition
Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees [includes musical notations]
"This is a Southwestern play-party song. Play party songs were designed to protect young people from the evil business of square dancing. Any number of couples would join hands and form a ring. The ladies would march around a single man and sing the first part of the song at a slow tempo. The man would chose a partner from the ring and the dancers would skip around them singing 'Two in the middle and I can't dance Josie.' This would continue until all couples were In the center. They would swing left and Right.
Lyrics:
[D] Coffee grows on white [Bm] Oak trees
[D] The river flows with [Em] brandy O[A]
[D] Go choose someone to [Bm] roam with you
[Em] Sweet as lasses [A] candy O
[D] Two in the middle and I [Bm] can't dance Josie
[D] Two in the middle and I [C] can't get [A] around
[D] Two in the middle and I [Bm] can't dance Josie
[G] Hello [A] Susan [D] Brown
Four in the middle and I can't dance Josie
Four in the middle and I can't get around
Four in the middle and I can't dance Josie
Hello Susan Brown
[D] Railroad, [F#m] steamboat, [Bm] river and [G] canal
I lost my [Em] true love on that [A] raging canal [D]
[D] O she's gone, gone, gone,
O she's gone, gone, gone, [A]
O she's gone on that ragin' [D] canal (X2)
Fiddler's drunk and I can't dance Josie
Fiddler's drunk and I can't get around
Fiddler's drunk and I can't dance Josie
Hello Susan Brown
Cow in the well and can't jump Josie
Cow in the well and can't get around
Cow in the well and can't jump Josie
Hello Susan Brown
Railroad, steamboat, river and canal
I lost my true love on that ragin' canal
O she's gone, gone, gone,
O she's gone, gone, gone,
O she's gone on that ragin' canal
(X2)
-snip-
"Josie" here refers to a type of couple's dance.
****
Text Example #2: FOUR IN THE MIDDLE
From http://web.lyon.edu/wolfcollection/songs/escuecoffee1242.html
Sung by: Jack Escue
Recorded in Sidney, AR 8/30/57
Coffee grows on a white oak tree,
River flows with brandy,
Choose you one as we go out,
Sweet as 'lasses candy.
There's four in the middle,
And you'd better get around.
There's four in the middle,
And you'd better get around.
There's four in the middle
And you'd better get around,
For I love my Susie Brown.
Six in the middle,
And you'd better get around.
There's six in the middle
And you'd better get around.
Six in the middle
And you'd better get around,
For I love my Susie Brown.
Now we're all in the middle,
And you'd better get around.
We're all in the middle
And you'd better get around.
We're all in the middle
And you'd better get around,
For I love my Susie Brown.
(Mr. Escue: "In this sing and play, they're all around a circle. They're going 'round and 'round and there's a extra boy and a girl in the center of the ring, and when it comes to choose your partner, why, each one of them chooses another boy and another girl, and they swing by the right, and back by the left, and on around. And then another couple joins in when it says six in the middle and they do the same thing. Swing them by the right and then back by the left, and then when you sing all in the middle, that means all eight is in there a-swinging with the right and then with the left. And that's the way you do that.")
Also found in Randolph, Vol. III, #524, "Four in the Middle"; Brown, Vol. III, #78, "Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees."
Click http://web.lyon.edu/wolfcollection/songs/escuecoffee1242.mp3 for this recording.
****
FEATURED VIDEO EXAMPLES (Choir Renditions)
Video Example #1: Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees
Lincoln High School Choirs, Published on Oct 22, 2015
Bella Voce performs Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees. Part of the Choral Preview Concert on October 21, 2015.
-snip-
This video replaces the one that was originally embedded in this post, but is no longer available.
****
Video Example #2: Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees
David Fazzini, Published on May 2, 2013
2013 Notre Dame Prep High School Women's Ensemble sings Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees arranged by William R. Fischer. This was recorded at State Festival in the Rochester High school auditorium. The chorus earned an excellent rating with this performance. David Fazzini (director), Jessica Zelinski (accompanist)
****
PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR COMMENT
In the rare event that any racial demographics are given online for "Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees" ("Four In The Middle"), those songs are usually only attributed to White Americans. That attribution ignores the extensive cross pollination that occurred between Black & White Southern & Appalachian residents regarding dance tunes & songs, play party songs, and minstrel songs. With regard to the song that is the focus of this post, the fact that African American folklorist Thomas W. Tally included a parody of "Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees" [whose title is "Coffee Grows On White Folks' Trees"] in his 1922 collection of Negro Folk Songs serves as documentation that Black folks knew that "CGOWOT" song.
****
BONUS VIDEO
Here's a video of a related folk song entitled "Weevily Wheat":
140 0818 [Weevily Wheat/Four In The Middle]
vanvalinv, Published on Dec 3, 2012
This song should be done in groups of four people. For the Weevily Wheat part of the song, you can hold hands and swing them, OR hold hands and walk in a circle going left, then right. For the multiplication part of the song, you pile hands on top of each other then release from the bottom of the pile.
-snip-
This rendition of "Weevily Wheat" shows why that song is sometimes also called "Four In The Middle".
Click http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=97222
"Origins: Weevily Wheat" for a discussion about "Weevily Wheat"/"Four In The Middle" songs. Some of those songs include the "Coffee Grows On White Oak Trees" verse. Here's an excerpt from one of those comments which was posted by Goose Gander, 15 Dec 06 - 08:28 PM :
"Amzie Casner Tabor of Trinidad, Colorado, remembered this from around 1900 as a dance like a Virginia reel to teach children their multiplication tables." [then includes the lyrics]
-snip-
This and another comment on that discussion thread imply that
the multiplication lyrics were a later addition on to that song.
****
Thanks to the composers & collectors of these featured songs. Thanks also to those who are quoted in this post, those who are featured in these videos, and those who published these videeos on YouTube.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
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