"John Brown's Baby Has A Cold Upon His Chest" & "John Brown's Baby Has A Pimple On His Nose" (Sound File, Article Excerpt, Comments, & Lyrics)

John Buchanan, May 21, 2020

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part III of a three part pancocojams series on songs that are sung to the tune that is best known now as "Glory Glory Hallelujah".

This post presents a YouTube video sound file of the children's parody song "John Brown's Baby". The lyrics for "John Brown's Baby" are included in this post along with an article excerpt and comments about that song.

An example of another version of this song entitled "John Brown's Baby Has A Pimple On His Nose" is also included in this pancocojams post. 

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/08/say-brothers-will-you-meet-us-christian.html
for Part I of this pancocojams series. Part I presents a YouTube sound file of the Christian song "Say Brothers, Will You Meet Us?". Information and comments about this song are also included in this post along with a few versions of its lyrics. 

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/08/john-browns-body-civil-war-marching.html
for Part II of this pancocojams series. That post presents a YouTube sound file of the Civil War marching song "John Brown's Body".  Information and comments about that song are also included in this post along with a few versions of its lyrics..

The content of this post is presented for cultural and entertainment purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the unverified composer/s of this song. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the producers and publisher of the YouTube sound file that is embedded in this post.  

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LYRICS AND ACTIONS: "JOHN BROWN'S BABY"
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW09agXpdeI  "JOHN BROWN'S BABY had a cold upon his chest children game"...SZABO MUSIC, May 29, 2018mA

John Brown's baby had a cold upon his chest John Brown's baby had a cold upon his chest John Brown's baby had a cold upon his chest And they rubbed it with camphorated oil. John Brown's ---- had a cold upon his chest John Brown's ---- had a cold upon his chest John Brown's ---- had a cold upon his chest And they rubbed it with camphorated oil. Verse 2: Omit word "baby" throughout and do motion Verse 3: Omit "baby" and "cold" and do motions Verse 4: Omit "baby", "cold" and "chest" and do motions Verse 5: Omit "baby", "cold", "chest" and "rubbed" and do motions Verse 6: Omit "baby", "cold", "chest", "rubbed" and "camphorated oil" and do motions MOTIONS (after Verse 1): baby - rock baby in arms cold - sneeze chest - hit chest rubbed - rub chest camphorated oil - hold nose & [make] a face* -snip- *Make the facial expression that people have when something stinks (something or someone has a strong, unpleasant smell) 
-snip-
Here are similar directions and motions for "John Brown's Baby" from  https://www.bethsnotesplus.com/2015/03/john-browns-baby.html 

Repeat the same lyrics, but remove a word each time you sing another verse, and replace it with its corresponding motion.

"John Brown = salute (I skip this one with younger students)
baby = motion of rocking baby in arms
cold = pretend to cough
chest = pat chest
rubbed = rub chest
camphorated oil = hold nose and make sour face"

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ARTICLE EXCERPT WITH SELECTED COMMENTS
From https://mistressofmusic.wordpress.com/2014/02/09/the-always-changing-john-browns-body-how-the-hell-did-a-song-about-an-abolitionist-morph-into-a-song-about-a-sick-kid/ "The always changing “John Brown’s Body” – How the hell did a song about an abolitionist morph into a song about a sick kid?, published by Mistress of Music, February  9, 2014

…."If there’s ever been a kid’s song that confused me so much as an adult, it’s this one: “John Brown’s Body”……..or is it “John Brown’s Baby”?  Or is it “Battle Hymn of the Republic”?  One melody, three different sets of lyrics, but they all keep the same chorus for some reason.

Let’s all take a deep breath and look at this one.  We’ll start with “John Brown’s Body”, because, if Wikipedia’s correct, this was the original.  The tune itself grew out of oral folk music tradition and hymn singing back in early 1800s America, so there really isn’t a single person who wrote it.  Same goes for the lyrics, which were thrown together by a group of Union soldiers; I think Wikipedia said it was the 2nd Infantry “Tiger” Battalion of the Massachusetts militia, according to an account from 1890.  It’s a marching song, so my guess is these soldiers started singing any words that came to mind, to a tune that most of them knew, to keep in time with the marching.

[lyrics inserted]

 So yeah, the lyrics are about the famed pre-Civil War abolitionist, John Brown.  This was the guy who wanted to combat slavery in Kansas by armed combat and violence.  Of course, he was eventually caught and hanged when his raid on Harper’s Ferry failed.  That’s the short version of it.  Go ask your US History teacher about the rest.

Let’s look at “Battle Hymn” next

[lyrics inserted]

The lyrics were written by Julia Ward Howe, and first published in 1862.  She was asked to write new lyrics after hearing the original tune sung by the aforementioned Tiger Battalion.  In this version, it seems as if Howe was linking up the Civil War with the biblical Judgment Day.  Needless to say, it’s become a very popular patriotic song.

I was introduced to this tune by way of a sillier version – “John Brown’s Baby”.  Here’s the lyrics to that one:

John Brown’s baby had a cold upon his chest,
John Brown’s baby had a cold upon his chest,
John Brown’s baby had a cold upon his chest,
And they rubbed it with camphorated oil.

There were body motions that went along with it too, and this one verse was repeated over and over, but different words were omitted and replaced with a silly body motion.  I was taught THIS in school!

Compared to the ones above, this one is beyond lame.  My guess is that my uptight teachers didn’t think we could handle the heady subjects of slavery and the Civil War and extremely religious patriotic songs (I went to public school), and I’m very sure they didn’t want us singing about anyone’s body lying “a-mouldering in the grave”.  But then again, we were young kids – maybe “John Brown’s Baby” was age-appropriate, and the teachers didn’t want any parents getting upset....

But I have to ask, what the hell is camphorated oil anyway?"
-snip-
Here are a few comments from this article's discussion thread. Numbers aer added for referencing purposes only. Comments 3& 5 are two other children's rhymes that have the same tune as "John Brown's Baby" ("Glory Glory Hallelujah".

1. carolgrover on September 8, 2015 at 6:26 pm said:
"My granny was born in 1885 in Scotland and travelled the world with her diplomat father. She sang me to sleepat night. Her version was

John Brown’s babty had a fly upon its ear

Ditto

Ditto

And he flicked it so it flew away." 

I also heard the Battle Hymn later. I never heard the baby with a cold version.

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2. Courtney on July 12, 2016 at 8:43 pm said:
"I was private schooled and we sang John Brown’s baby nearly every day! Camphor oil is just Vick’s vapor rub 🙂"

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3. Ann Francis on August 28, 2016 at 5:48 pm said:

"At got scout camp I learned:

I wear my pink pajamas in the summer when it’s hot.
I wear my flannel nighty in the winter when it’s not.
And sometimes in the springtime and sometimes in the fall, I jump into the covers with nothin’ on at all.

Glory glory hallelujah.
Glory glory what’s it to ya?
Balmy breezes blowin’ through ya
With nothin’ on at all."

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Reply
4. rdpblue on August 29, 2016 at 10:21 am said:

"That’s a good one! I read it while singing the tune to myself…

 It’s a pretty versatile melody; I guess you can put any words you want, as long as it fits the rhythm."

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5. Jack Kent on June 17, 2018 at 9:04 am said:

"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school
We have tortured every teacher – we have broken every rule
We plan to hang the principal and secretary too
Our troops are marching on!

Glory, glory, hallelujah
Teacher hit me with a ruler
The ruler turned red, and the teacher dropped dead
And she ain’t my teacher no more!"

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6. Betty Sue Agado on July 2, 2018 at 7:08 pm said:
"Fyi camphorated oil is really nothing more than Vicks vapor rub. But before Vicks marketed it as such."

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A VERSION OF "JOHN BROWN'S BABY HAS A PIMPLE ON HIS NOSE"
From https://www.volksliederarchiv.de/john-browns-baby-has-a-pimble-on-his-nose/  
"John Brown’s Baby has a pimple on his nose (1942)

Volkslieder » Scherzlieder » 1933-1945 Nationalsozialismus"

John Brown’s Baby has a pimple on his nose
John Brown’s Baby has a pimple on his nose
John Brown’s Baby has a pimple on his nose
and we go march in the long

Glori Glori Glori Gloria
Schön sind die Mädchen von Batavia
Glori Glori Glori Gloria
Schöne Mädchen gibt es da

Das Lied wird 8 mal wiederholt. Bei jeder Wiederholung wird von dem Satz „John Brown’s Baby has a pimble on his nose“ der Reihe nach ein Wort nach dem andern ausgeschlossen, so dass zuletzt nur das Wort „nose“ gesungen wird. Die Pausen müssen genau ausgehalten werden.

Text: Verfasser unbekannt – Parodie auf „John Browns Body lies a mouldring in his grave“

„John Browns Baby hat einen Pickel auf der Nase….“
-snip-
Google translate from German to English:

John Brown’s Baby has a pimple on his nose
John Brown’s Baby has a pimple on his nose
John Brown’s Baby has a pimple on his nose
and we go march in the long [Pancocojams Editor's Note: alternative transcription: "As we go marching along"]

Glori Glori Glori Gloria
The girls from Batavia are beautiful
Glori Glori Glori Gloria
There are beautiful girls there

The song is repeated 8 times. With each repetition, the phrase "John Brown's Baby has a pimple on his nose" is eliminated one word at a time, so that only the word "nose" is sung at the end. The pauses must be endured precisely.

Text: Author unknown - parody of "John Brown's body lies a moldring in his grave"

"John Brown's baby has a pimple on his nose...."

Music: Civil War song about the abolition of slavery

in Der Pott (1942 "a pimble") - also in: The Kilometer Stone (1934 "a pimpel") - similarity to "Auf der Mauer auf der Lauer"....

Musik: Lied aus dem amerikanischen Bürgerkrieg um die Abschaffung der Sklaverei

in Der Pott (1942 „a pimble“) – auch in : Der Kilometerstein (1934 „a pimpel“) – Ähnlichkeit zu „Auf der Mauer auf der Lauer“….
-snip-
This song is probably found in other languages and may have originated in the United States.

 The Glory Glory Hallelujah" chorus that is found in "John Brown's Baby Has A Cold Upon His Chest" can replace the words that are used for the chorus of this German version of "John Brown's Baby Has A Pimple On His Nose".  

That post doesn't give any directions for the motions that are used for this song. However, singers can touch their nose for that word and march around on those words.

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This concludes Part III of this three part pancocojams series.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

"Say Brothers, Will You Meet Us?" - The Christian Camp Meeting Song That Was Adapted As "John Brown's Body", "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic" , & More

Columbia Yore,  Dec 12, 2018 

American Christian folk song. Its earliest date for being written down is in 1850, but the song is more likely dated to the late 1700s, during the Second Great Awakening, a series of Evangelical Christian revivals. The song was very popular in America during its time and served as the basis for the songs "John Browns Body" and later "The Battle Hyme of the Republic" during the Civil War.

unknown original artist, but this version is by Bob Horton.

The images are of 'The Great Awakening" which were waves of Christian Evangelical revivals across the United States.

The First one being from 1730-1755

The Second one being from 1790-1840

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part I of a three part pancocojams series on songs that are sung to the tune that is best known now as "Glory Glory Hallelujah".

This post presents a YouTube sound file of the Christian song "Say Brothers, Will You Meet Us?". Information and comments about this song are also included in this post along with a few versions of its lyrics. 

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/08/john-browns-body-civil-war-marching.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. That post presents a YouTube sound file of the Civil War marching song "John Brown's Body".  Information and comments about that song are also included in this post along with a few versions of its lyrics..

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/08/john-browns-baby-sound-file-article.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. That post presents a YouTube video sound file of the children's parody song "John Brown's Baby". The lyrics for "John Brown's Baby" are included in this post along with an article excerpt and comments about that song. 

This post also includes a version of the song "John Brown's Baby Has A Pimple On His Nose".

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

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the unknown composers of this song. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the producers and publisher of the YouTube sound file that is embedded in this post. 

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SONG "SAY BROTHERS, WILL YOU MEET US?"

Excerpt #1
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown%27s_Body
..."History of the tune
Say, Brothers, Will You Meet Us", the tune that eventually became associated with "John Brown's Body" and the "Battle Hymn of the Republic", was formed in the American camp meeting circuit of the late 1700s and early 1800s.[2] These meetings were usually held in frontier areas, when people who lacked regular access to church services would gather together to worship before traveling preachers.[3] These meetings were important social events, but developed a reputation for wildness in addition to wild religious fervor experienced by attendees.[4] In that atmosphere, where hymns were taught and learned by rote and a spontaneous and improvisational element was prized, both tunes and words changed and adapted in true folk music fashion:

[…]

According to George Kimball, the second publication of the John Brown Song and the first including both music and text, with music arranged by C.S. Marsh, dated 1861. See George Kimball, "Origin of the John Brown Song", New England Magazine, new series 1 (1890):371–76

Specialists in nineteenth-century American religious history describe camp meeting music as the creative product of participants who, when seized by the spirit of a particular sermon or prayer, would take lines from a preacher's text as a point of departure for a short, simple melody. The melody was either borrowed from a preexisting tune or made up on the spot. The line would be sung repeatedly, changing slightly each time, and shaped gradually into a stanza that could be learned easily by others and memorized quickly.[5]

Early versions of "Say, Brothers" included variants, developed as part of this call-and-response hymn singing tradition such as:

Oh! Brothers will you meet me

Oh! Sisters will you meet me

Oh! Mourners will you meet me

Oh! Sinners will you meet me

Oh! Christians will you meet me

This initial line was repeated three times and finished with the tag "On Canaan's happy shore".[6]

The first choruses included lines such as

We'll shout and give him glory (3×)

For glory is his own[7]

The familiar "Glory, glory, hallelujah" chorus—a notable feature of the "John Brown Song", the "Battle Hymn of the Republic", and many other texts that used this tune—developed out of the oral camp meeting tradition sometime between 1808 and the 1850s.

Folk hymns like "Say, Brothers" circulated and evolved chiefly through oral tradition rather than through print.[8] In print, the camp meeting song can be traced back as early as 1806–1808, when it was published in camp meeting song collections in South Carolina, Virginia, and Massachusetts.[9]

The tune and variants of the "Say, brothers" hymn text were popular in southern camp meetings, with both African-American and white worshipers, throughout the early 1800s, spread predominantly through Methodist and Baptist camp meeting circuits.[10] As the southern camp meeting circuit died down in the mid 1800s, the "Say, brothers" tune was incorporated into hymn and tune books and it was via this route that the tune became well known in the mid 1800s throughout the northern U.S. By 1861, "groups as disparate as Baptists, Mormons, Millerites, the American Sunday School Union, and the Sons of Temperance all claimed 'Say Brothers' as their own."[11]

For example, in 1858 words and the tune were published in The Union Harp and Revival Chorister, selected and arranged by Charles Dunbar, and published in Cincinnati. The book contains the words and music of a song "My Brother Will You Meet Me", with the music but not the words of the "Glory Hallelujah" chorus; and the opening line "Say my brother will you meet me". In December 1858 a Brooklyn Sunday school published a hymn called "Brothers, Will You Meet Us" with the words and music of the "Glory Hallelujah" chorus, and the opening line "Say, brothers will you meet us".[12]

Some researchers have maintained that the tune's roots go back to a "Negro folk song",[13] an African-American wedding song from Georgia,[14] or to a British sea shanty that originated as a Swedish drinking song.[15] Anecdotes indicate that versions of "Say, Brothers" were sung as part of African American ring shouts;[16] appearance of the hymn in this call-and-response setting with singing, clapping, stomping, dancing, and extended ecstatic choruses may have given impetus to the development of the well known "Glory hallelujuah" chorus. Given that the tune was developed in an oral tradition, it is impossible to say for certain which of these influences may have played a specific role in the creation of this tune, but it is certain that numerous folk influences from different cultures such as these were prominent in the musical culture of the camp meeting, and that such influences were freely combined in the music-making that took place in the revival movement.[5]

It has been suggested that "Say Brothers, Will You Meet Us", popular among Southern blacks, already had an anti-slavery sub-text, with its reference to "Canaan's happy shore" alluding to the idea of crossing the river to a happier place.[17][18] If so, that sub-text was considerably enhanced and expanded as the various "John Brown" lyrics took on themes related to the famous abolitionist and the American Civil War."...

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Excerpt #2
From https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=20569 Lyr Req/Add: Say Brothers Will You Meet Us?

Numbers added for referencing purposes only.

1.
Subject: Lyr Add: SAY, BROTHER, WILL YOU MEET US? etc.
From: Rex
Date: 21 Apr 00 - 12:32 PM

[…]

Say, Brother, Will You Meet Us?

(No. 202 in "Spiritual Songs of Early America" by George Pullen Jackson)

Say, Brother, will you meet us?
Say, Brother, will you meet us?
Say, Brother, will you meet us?
On Canaan's happy shore.

Glory, glory hallelujah,
Glory, glory hallelujah,
Glory, glory hallelujah,
As we go marching on.

Say, Sister, will you meet us? ....

By the grace of God we'll meet you, ....

That will be a happy meeting,.....

Jesus lives and reigns forever,....

Glory, glory hallelujah....

Forever, evermore.

Here's another version.

Say Brothers Will We Meet You [title]

Say brothers will you meet us on Canaan's happy shore,
Say brothers will you meet us on Canaan's happy shore,
When the day of Judgement comes?

Glory, glory hallelujah,
Glory, glory hallelujah,
Glory, glory hallelujah,
When the day of Judgement comes?

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2. 
Subject: Lyr Add: SAY, BROTHERS
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 Jun 02 - 12:19 AM

SAY, BROTHERS

Say, brothers, will you meet us?
Say, brothers, will you meet us?
On Canaan's happy shore?

Say, sisters, will you meet us, etc.

By the grace of God we'll meet you

Where parting is no more;

That will be a happy meeting

On Canaan's happy shore.

Jesus lives and reigns forever,

On Canaan's happy shore.

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Forever, evermore!

The Revivalist, No. 173, p. 95. From American Negro Folk Songs, 1928, Newman L. White, 1965 reprint, Appendix, p. 434-435. A variant of the version posted by Rex.

**
3.
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Say Brothers Will You Meet Us?
From: masato sakurai
Date: 02 Jun 02 - 02:12 AM

George Pullen Jackson notes:

"This ["Say Brothers"] will be recognized as the tune which Julia Ward Howe used for the chorus of the 'Battle Hymn of the Republic'. It is still popular in the above form [as "Say Brothers"] in negro churches of the South." (Spiritual Folk-Songs of Early America, p. 207)

He presents, in addition, a Negro spiritual version of "Say Brothers" in his White and Negro Spirituals (1944; Da Capo, 1975, p. 179), with this comment: "Recorded by the present author as sung May 21, 1933, in Zema Hill's Primitive Baptist Church, Nashville, Tennessee. Earlier variants are in White's Fisk Jubilee Songs of 1872, pages 14 and 140." (p. 179); the tune is practically the same.

The ol'-time religion it is good enough for me,

The ol'-time religion it is good enough for me,

The ol'-time religion it is good enough for me

As we go marching home.

~Masato

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4. 
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Say Brothers Will You Meet Us?
From: masato sakurai
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 10:33 AM

Ellen Jane Lorenz, in her Glory, Hallelujah!: The Story of the Campmeeting Spiritual (Abingdon, 1978, p. 121), writes (underline added):

Say, brothers, will you meet us illustrates the singability of the campmeeting choruses; it is the campmeeting chorus most parodied, from the time of its first creation up to the present. ... L.A. Banks relates its story in his Immortal Songs of Camp and Field [1898]. His first meeting with the song was in Charleston in 1859, with a performance soon after at the YMCA of Albany, N.Y. (But the present study reveals a publication in Songs of Zion, 1851.) Banks says, "It has been claimed that the Millerites [Adventists] used the tune to a hymn, 'We'll see the angels coming through the old church yard (3 times) / Shouting through the air / Glory, glory, hallelujah.'"

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Excerpt #3
From https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=71356

Numbers added for referencing purposes only.

1.
Subject: RE: Origins:John Brown's Body/ Battle Hymn of Republic
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 03:42 PM
"Very interesting!

Do we have a firm date on the hymn, "Say Brothers, Will You Meet Us?"? Posted in thread 32038: Civil War Songs

One website says 1856-1858 (the Steffe story*), and another says it appeared in 1858 as the hymn (copyright and/or sheet music), or "Oh, My Brothers Will You Meet Me?" (Union Harp [?] but I have no means of checking. See Say brother

Some of the information is questionable. The sheet music I have is from an article published much later.

According to Lois Eagan, a letter from Port Royal said the song was sung by slaves "at General Drayton's plantation," in a "shouting exercise" to the tune of "Say, Brothers." "Sisters, soldiers, preachers," etc. were given an invitation to meet on "Canaan's happy shore." Anecdotes

I cannot find a date or further details about this 'letter'. According to a note (p. 259) in Dena J. Epstein, "Sinful Tunes and Spirituals," the song may have been heard at St Helena in 1862 by Laura Towne."
-snip-
*Pancocojams Editor’s note: Here's some information about William Steff from https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=71356, "John Brown's Body", posted by raredance,11 May 01
...."The source of this is "The Singing Sixties" by W A and PW Heaps (1960 Univ Oklahoma Press). They say that the tune was composed some time before 1855 by a South Carolinian named William Steffe and had bcome popular at camp meetings with a chorus line of "Say, brothers, will you meet us on Canaan's happy shore?". When a battalion of the 12th Massachusetts Regiment was stationed at Fort Warren in Boston early in the war, some of the members used the tune to taunt a soldier named John Brown. The conversion to the Abolitionist John Brown was not a big step"..
-snip-
This complete comment is given in Part II of this pancocojams series.

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2.
Subject: RE: Origins:John Brown's Body/ Battle Hymn of Republic
From: masato sakurai
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 04:10 AM

"According to James J. Fuld (The Book of World-Famous Music, 5th ed., 2000, p. 132):

The written record begins in 1857-1858. On Dec. 19, 1857, there was a copyright entry by Charles Dunbar, Camp Meeting Harp and Revival Chorister. Though no copy of a book with this title has been found, a book entitled The Union Harp and Revival Chorister, with the collection selected and arranged by Charles Dunbar, and a statement that it was published in Cincinnati in 1858, has been found; and it contains at page 264 the music and words of "My Brother Will You Meet Me." The opening words are "Say my brother will you meet me." The music of the Glory Hallelujah chorus is present, but not the words. No copyright entry was made for this book in 1858, although Dunbar copyrighted several other books during that year and copyrighted the second edition of The Union Harp and Revival Chorister on April 30, 1859."

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Visitor comments are welcome.