Lead Belly - "Dig A Hole Put The Devil In" (two YouTube sound files, comments, & lyrics) Complete Reprint

Leadbelly- topic,  Sep 4, 2018

Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group

Gwine Dig a Hole to Put the Devil In -- The Library of Congress Recordings, V. 2

℗ 1991 Rounder Records Manufactured and distributed by Concord Music Group

Released on: 1991-01-01

Auto-generated by YouTube.

[comments are turned off] 

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post is a complete reprint of a 2013 pancocojams post and its discussion thread comments (as of March 1, 2026). That post is still available on this pancocojams blog. 

This pancocojams post showcases two sound files of Lead Belly singing "Gonna Dig A Hole Put The Devil In". Leadbelly's recording "Gwine Dig A Hole Put The Devil In" is a secular extension of that religious song.

Notice the different tempos of Lead Belly's two performances of this song.

This post presents information about Leadbelly and a transcription of the lyrics for that song are also included in this post along with a transcript of  an interview about that song and some other songs that Lead Belly gave to Alan and John Lomaz. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/12/leadellys-comments-about-shoo-fly-other.html "Lead Belly's Comments About "Shoo Fly" & Other 19th Century & Early 20th Century Dances" for the complete transcription of that interview.

This post also includes a link to a Mudcat folk discussion thread that includes several transcription attempts for Lead Belly's version of "It's Tight Like That".

This content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the unknown composer/s of this song. Thanks to Lead Belly for his musical legacy. Thanks to John and Alan Lomax and other collectors and early publishers of the songs that Lead Belly sang. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this pancocojams post and thanks to the publishers of these song files on YouTube.
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/03/some-history-of-comments-about-song-dig.html for the related pancocojams post "Some History Of & Comments About The Song "Dig A Hole Put The Devil In" (from a Mudcat folk music discussion thread)."

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INFORMATION ABOUT LEADBELLY
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_Belly
"Huddie William Ledbetter ... January 1888[1][2] or 1889[3] – December 6, 1949),[1] better known by the stage name Lead Belly, was an American folk and blues singer notable for his strong vocals, virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the folk standards he introduced, including his renditions of "In the Pines" (also known as "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" and “Black Girl”), "Pick a Bale of Cotton", "Goodnight, Irene", "Black Betty", "Midnight Special", "Cotton Fields", and "Boll Weevil".

 Ledbetter usually played a twelve-string guitar, but he also played the piano, mandolin, harmonica, violin, and windjammer (accordion).[4] In some recordings he also used clapping or stomping to accompany his singing.

Ledbetter's songs covered a wide range of genres, including gospel music, blues, and folk music, as well as a number of topics, including women, liquor, prison life, racism, cowboys, work, sailors, cattle herding, and dancing. He also wrote songs about people in the news, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, Jean Harlow, Jack Johnson, the Scottsboro Boys and Howard Hughes. Ledbetter was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2008.

Though many releases credit him as "Leadbelly", he wrote his stage name as "Lead Belly". This is the spelling on his tombstone[5][6] and is used by the Lead Belly Foundation.[7] He did not care for the "Lead Belly" stage name and always introduced himself by his given name, Huddie Ledbetter.[8]"...

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SHOWCASE SOUND FILE #2 - Gwine Dig a Hole to Put the Devil in It (Remastered)

LeadbeLLY -Topic, .Mar 13, 2015

Provided to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises

Gwine Dig a Hole to Put the Devil in It · Leadbelly

Selected Sides 1934-1948 (Remastered)

℗ 2013 JSP Records

Released on: 2014-03-10

[comments are turned off] 

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SUMMARY OF AND TRANSCRIPTION OF AN INTERVIEW THAT LEAD BELLY HAD WITH EITHER ALAN LOMAX OR JOHN LOMAX  FROM TWO NO LONGER AVAILABLE ONLINE SOURCES 

Source #1 
This sound file was originally embedded in this 2013 pancocojams post . That  was published on Dec 10, 2011 by sherpa285. That sound file showcases Leadbelly singing two songs " Dig a Hole & Tight Like That" [No longer available on March 1, 2026 and earlier. sherpa285 published a comment (found below) the 2013 postabout this song.]

Here's that summary:
"From an old vinyl 3 LP set that I bought years ago in a used record store. I've never heard either of these versions elsewhere. I believe that this is from a session with either Alan or John Lomax. Both songs are amazing. If anyone know any of the words, please post. I've been trying to figure some of them out for years."

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Source #2
From http://anthrocivitas.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1737&page=3 "American Folk Songs Of Black Origin" [This discussion thread is no longer available on March 1, 2026 and earlier.]

Magneto, 12-15-2010, 03:55 PM Post #28

"In the following conversation, recorded by Library of Congress folklorist Alan Lomax in Washington in 1940, Huddie gives us some idea of all the dancing going on at a sukey jump, circa 1900. The conversation is being recorded onto discs which contain perhaps three or four minutes each, and are spinning around at 78 revolutions per minute. There is no time for long pauses or considered answers. While the interview sounds a bit like a word association game, it does gives an impression of what the dances were like...

Lomax: Huddie, did they have any real fast numbers at these dances? Do you remember any of those?

Ledbetter: They'd pick 'em up.

Lomax: When they'd do the hoedown and. . .

Ledbetter: They'd pick 'em up, you know, they'd have some fast ones when they'd just go, like, "Green Corn, Come Along Charlie," "Gonna Dig a Hole to Put the Devil In," and, "Tight Like That," sometimes they'd holler, say, "Tight like this!"
[They are both talking at once through here.]

Lomax: What did they mean by that Huddie, really? I mean, tell us confidentially what they mean by "tight like that."

[Lomax may have been fishing for some sexual innuendo, but Huddie wasnt playing along, perhaps realizing there was nothing confidential about this interview.]

Ledbetter: "Tight like that" means when you got your partner, grab and hug her tight, and keep her going, but when it comes time the boy grab his partner, he grab her and giving her a hug, he says, "Tight like this, it was tight like this, but now it's tight like this." And the boys'd be jumping on "Tight like that."

Lomax: What were some of the dance steps, Huddie, when they were playing some of these fast tunes?

Ledbetter: Well, ain't no dance steps you could do but "breakdown," and that's a fast number. You can't dance no tap dance, I don't think, a fast breakdown number, course you might, but that's where all the tap dances [Huddie is talking very fast, as though he's afraid of being interrupted] . . . all the tap dances come from the old "buck and wing" what they used to do. Well, the breakdown dance, nobody do 'em now, but I don't guess nobody know nothing about it very much, but me, and I do the breakdown. When you do it you got to do it real fast, and when you breakdown you ain't tapping, you just working your legs. Now, a long time ago my grandfather, great-grandfather, say, "you ain't dancing til you cross your legs." So I guess now, nobody dancing because they don't cross their legs hardly ever. But when you do that old breakdown, and wing down, and green corn and that old ground shovel and, uh . . .

Lomax: What about "knocking the pigeon wing?"

Ledbetter: . . . pigeon wing and . . .

Lomax: . . . cutting the back step?

Ledbetter: . . . cutting the short dog, well, you got to cross your legs.

Lomax: Huddie, play us one of those tunes, something like "Gonna Dig a Hole to Put the Devil In," and tell us what it means, too, you know.

Ledbetter: "Gonna Dig a Hole to Put the Devil In" - long years ago, that was when they see the boss coming, you know? And the boys would see the boss coming, well, they didn't like him, you know, but they'd be together, nothing but negroes all piled up there together. When they'd see him coming, they'd say, "Well, we're gonna dig a hole to put the devil in," boy they'd start a-jumping. [plays "Gonna dig a hole. . ." with very fast accompaniment on guitar.]"...
-snip-
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/12/leadellys-comments-about-shoo-fly-other.html for the full transcript Library of Congress transcript of that interview.

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LYRICS: GWINE DIG A HOLE PUT THE DEVIL IN
(as sung by Lead Belly in the 1940 interview with Alan Lomax) This recording occurs at 2:07- 3:37 of the [no longer available sound file that was originally given in this pancocojams post.)

[WARNING- This song includes words that can be considered cursing.]

"Yeeee! They go down a hollerin to one another.

Yeee hoo!

Gwine* dig a hole put the devil in
Gwine dig a hole put the devil in
Gwine dig a hole
Gwine dig a hole
Letta dig a hole**
Letta dig a hole**

Yee ha! They all clappin and shoutin. The devil comin now. He don't know what it's all about, but they do.

Gwine dig a hole
Gwine dig a hole
Let me dig a hole to put the devil in
Let me dig a hole
Let the devil in
Let the devil in

Then they start

Gimme little bit of dram***
Little bit of dram
Little bit of dram
Little bit of dram

When the boss is gone they startin

I don't give a damn
Don't give a damn
Don't give a damn
Don't give a damn
Don't give a damn
I don't give a damn.

Yee Hoo!

I dig a hole put the devil in
I dig a hole
I dig a hole
I dig a hole
I dig a hole and put the devil in

Wake Jake days a breakin
Peas in the pot
and the hoe cakes' bakin
Gwine dig a hole
Gwine dig a hole
I dig a hole
I dig a hole

I don't give a damn
Don't give a damn
Don't give a damn
Don't give a damn
Don't give a damn
I don't give a damn."
-snip-
Transcription by Azizi Powell. Additions and corrections are welcome.

*Gwin"e is a no longer used Southern regional (USA) dialectic word which means "gonna".

**This word sounds like "pole" but I think that Lead Belly meant "hole".

***dram - a portion of an alcoholic drink

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR COMMENTS ABOUT "DIG A HOLE PUT THE DEVIL IN" [revised on December 12, 2013]
In that 1940 recorded interview Lead Belly shared how "Gonna Dig A Hole Put The Devil In" was sung by "negroes" who saw their "boss" coming. ("Negroes" is no longer used as a referent for Black Americans and even before that referent was retired, many Black people and other people considered it offensive to spell that word with a small "n". Lead Belly said that this song was sung this way "a long time ago". I'm not sure if "the boss" here means the slave master or the person who was in charge of men who were working post-slavery.)

In my opinion, Lead Belly's recollection of how "Gonna Dig A Hole" was sung demonstrates how Black people masked their true feelings about their life situations in front of White people while they insulted them in coded form right in front of White people's faces. Combining the religious song "Dig A Hole Put The Devil In" with a familiar fiddler song "Give The Fiddler A Dram" masked the fact that the workers considered "the boss" to be "the devil". Notice that after the boss leaves, the song changes to the defiant verse "I don't give a damn". Also, notice how Lead Belly says that the boss didn't understand that the "dig a hole" song was sung as an insult. "They all clappin and shoutin. The devil comin now. He don't know what it's all about, but they do."

It's interesting that the White folklorist Alan Lomax doesn't appear to have caught the hidden purpose of those lyrics as sung by those men, and the defiant nature of their "don't give a damn" lines.

That said, it's important to clarify that, in contrast to some Black militants in the late 1960s and 1970s's use of "the devil" as a referent for a White person, it appears to me that in Lead Belly's recollections of that song, the boss was equated with the devil, not because of his race, but because of his role as a boss (or a owner of slaves).
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Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/12/lead-bellys-and-several-other-versions.html for another pancocojams posts that includes this Lead Belly version of "Gonna Dig A Hole".

Click http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=126852
for a Mudcat folk discussion thread that includes several transcription attempts for Lead Belly's version of "It's Tight Like That".

Also, click http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=137600 "Origins: Dig a hole to put the devil in" for a Mudcat discussion thread that documents that the "dig a hole, put the devil in" line was known in England. That discussion thread includes other songs that contain that "dig a hole" line.

"Stomping the devil on his head" is a related saying that is closely associated with the Pentecostal denomination. People who are "shouting" (doing the holy dance) are said to be "stomping the devil in his head".

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/06/its-tight-like-that-videos-lyrics-part.html for a pancocojams post on "It's Tight Like That" (Videos & Lyrics) Part I: Georgia Tom & Tampa Red (1928)

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DISCUSSION THREAD COMMENTS FROM THE 2013 PANCOCOJAMS POST

1. AnonymousDecember 11, 2013 at 8:54 PM

   Ms. Powell, thanks again for using my video upload to shed some light on the lyrics. I've been wondering about some of these lines for 15 years now! I heard Huddie Ledbetter for the first time when I was 23 and just out of the service. The hair stood up on the back of my neck, and I listened to very little else for about a year.

   ReplyDelete
   Replies

   
   Azizi PowellDecember 12, 2013 at 7:00 AM
   Your welcome. sherpa285.
   
   I was came upon these lyrics after learning about the saying "stomp on the devil's head" and then the saying "dig a hole put the devil in". I was thrilled to first find via "my friend" Google Search that Library of Congress transcript that Magneto had posted in 2010 on that amthrocivitas forum, and then the sound file that you had uploaded to YouTube in 2011. That sound file was a real gift. I was hoping to find one on YouTube but didn't think I would.
   
   I believe that much more attention should be given to Lead Belly's comments about the songs "Dig a Hole" with its "give the fiddler a dram/don't give a damn" lines. That recording should be studied and appreciated not just for aesthetic and entertainment reasons, but also because of what those songs sung the way Lead Belly shared reveals about African Americans in that place and time.
   Delete
   Reply
2. 
   General EnnuiJanuary 23, 2021 at 12:21 AM

   I'm not an expert, I'm no historian and please don't quote me on this..
   But as it was once explained to me, when the chain gang saw the boss coming the main verse would start. As he walked down the line, the lyrics would change. I'd heard the change as both "gimme a dream," and also "fiddler down." When the boss was totally out of earshot, the cadence went down the line as "don't give a damn," till it came all the way down and back to "gonna dig a hole."
   But that's the magic of folklore. No one knows the truth, but everyone loves a legend.

   ReplyDelete
   Replies

   1. 
      Azizi PowellJanuary 23, 2021 at 4:12 AM

      Thanks for sharing that anecdotal story, General Ennui.
      
      I appreciate it and who knows, it could be true. But even if it isn't true, it points to the spirit of those (these?) times and situations, and how Black people had (have?) to act differently in front of those who have power over us.

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"Bring Me Little Water Sylvie" (Leadbelly's sound file And Sweet Honey In The Rock's video) with lyrics)

SmithsonianFolkwaysRecordings, Jul 22, 2015

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post showcases a YouTube sound file of Leadbetter singing the African American folk song "Bring Me Little Water Sylvie" and a YouTube video of the African American vocal "Sweet Honey In The Rock" sing that song.

The lyrics for that song are also included in this post.

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

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Leadbelly and thanks to Sweet Honey In The Rock for their musical legacies.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/03/tik-tok-harmonizes-with-james-charles.html for the closely related 2021 pancocojams post entitled T"ik Tok Harmonizes With James Charles - "Bring Me Little Water, Silvy" And A Video Of High School Choir Doing Body Patting While Singing "Bring Me Little Water", Silvy"."

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EXAMPLE #2: 

Mark Sydow, September 26, 2013

Recorded in foyer of Sydney's spectacular art deco State Theatre for Australian TV during 1990 Australian tour. Sweet Honey in the Rock was founded in 1973 by Bernice Johnson Reagon, who was teaching a vocal workshop with the Washington, D.C. Black Repertory Company. Reagon retired from the group in 2004. The name of the group was derived from a song, based on Psalm 81:16, which tells of a land so rich that when rocks were cracked open, honey flowed from them. Johnson has said that this first song in which four women blended their voices was so powerful, that there was no question what the name of the group should be. The ensemble's most powerful messages are proclaimed through an enormous catalog of songs addressing the world's woes. They are currently occupied with immigration injustices, congressional greed and lack of compassion for hurting citizens, the environmental imbalance, racial issues and women's issues. Group Members in this video: Bernice Johnson Reagon, Ysaye Maria Barnwell, Nitanju Bolade Casel, Aisha Kahlil,  Evelyn Maria Harris.
-snip-
Notice that the women wear kente cloth stoles. Kente cloth is a type of traditional cloth from Ghana and the Ivory Coast, West Africa. Kente cloth has become a symbol of the beauty of  African culture for Black people in the United States and elsewhere in the African Diaspora since at least the mid 1970s.   

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INFORMATION ABOUT LEADBELLY AND THE SONG "BRING ME LITTLE WATER SYLVIE 

Excerpt #1:
From https://www.colburnschool.edu/colburn-city-sings/learn-to-sing/bring-little-water-sylvie-part-ii/#:~:text=Colburn%20teaching%20artist%20Leeav%20and,in%20these%20two%2Dpart%20lessons.&text=%E2%80%8BThe%20earliest%20known%20performance,Ledbetter%2C%20known%20as%20Lead%20Belly.
"The earliest known performance of Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie dates back to 1936, and was popularized by American folk musician Huddie Ledbetter, known as Lead Belly.  Lead Belly was a great musician of the 20th century for the songs that he wrote, discovered, and shared, and for his skills on the guitar (which gave him the nickname “King of the 12-String Guitar”).  His music influenced many famous musicians such as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, The Beatles, Bob Dylan.

​It’s possible that Lead Belly may have based Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie on a traditional American song, or it’s possible that he may have written the song himself.  When performing this song, Lead Belly would often tell his audiences that the song was about his uncle Bob Ledbetter, who worked out on the fields plowing the soil.  When he got thirsty, he would call for his wife, Sylvie, to bring him some water."...

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Excerpt #2
From http://www.debisimons.com/bring-me-a-little-water-sylvie/ "Who’s Sylvie, and Why Is She Carrying Water?" April 30, 2019 by debisimons
...."Leadbelly’s Uncle Bob Ledbetter had a wife named Silvy. When he was out plowing with his mules he would often holler for Silvie to bring him some water. After a long time this holler developed into a little song. When Leadbelly performed outside of the South, he often taught the audience the background of his songs so the audience would understand. Audiences from New York often had little concept of the rural South. (Source: FolkSongIndex.com; follow the link if you’d like to read the whole article which details how Ledbetter would present the song to Northern audiences.)

Here’s the thing, though: most sources, including something called “The Traditional Ballad Index,” list the song as anonymous, probably a work song from the slave plantations. It’s not hard to imagine that a savvy performer would think that his audience would like the song better if it had a personal story attached. I’m just a-sayin’! No copyrights were harmed in this process. (On further thought I realized that it’s perfectly possible that Huddie’s uncle did indeed sing the song to his wife even if he didn’t really make it up to being with, and that Huddie thought he was giving an accurate portrayal of its origin.)"...

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LYRICS: BRING ME LITTLE WATER, SLYVIE

Won't you bring a little water Sylvie

Won't you bring a little water now

Won't you bring a little water Sylvie

Lord, ev'ry little once in a while

 

Well do you love me Sylvie

Oh do you love me now

Oh do you love me Sylvie

Yeah! ev'ry little once in a while

 

Well bring a little water Sylvie

Won't you bring a little water now

Won't you bring a little water Sylvie

Lord, ev'ry little once in a while

 

Won't you bring a little water Sylvie

Won't you bring a little water now

Won't you bring a little water Sylvie

Lord, ev'ry little once in a while

 

C'mon an' prove it to me Sylvie

Prove it to me now

Won't you prove it to me Sylvie

Yeah! ev'ry little once in a while

 

Well bring a little water Sylvie

Won't you bring a little water now

Won't you bring a little water Sylvie

Lord, ev'ry little once in a while


https://genius.com/Lead-belly-bring-me-a-little-water-silvy-sylvie-lyrics

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Leadbelly & The Golden Gate Quartet - Alabama Bound (sound file & lyrics)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post showcases a sound file and lyrics for Leadbelly's version of the song "Alabama Bound." A brief excerpt from that song's Wikipedia page is also included in this post. Additional examples of this song are included in the Bonus section of this post.

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

All copyrights remain with their owners.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SONG "ALABAMA BOUND"
From
"I'm Alabama Bound" is a ragtime melody composed by Robert Hoffman in 1909. Hoffman "respectfully" dedicated it to one M. T. Scarlata.[1] The cover of its first edition, published by Robert Ebberman, New Orleans, 1909, advertises the music as "Also Known As The Alabama Blues" which has led some to suspect it of being one of the first blues songs. However, as written, it is an up-tempo rag (Rag Time Two Step) with no associated lyrics.

It has been recorded numerous times in different styles—both written and in sound recordings—with a number of different sets of lyrics.

Two recording artists claimed composing credits for the tune under two different titles and both with differing lyrics: Trixie Smith for "Railroad Blues" (Paramount 12262, 1925) and Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton for "Don't You Leave Me Here" (Bluebird 10450, 1939).

Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter recorded perhaps the best-known version of "I'm Alabama Bound" ("Alabama Bound", Victor 27268, 1940).

...The first lyrics associated with the melody was a 1909 sound recording attributing the words to the owner of a New Orleans sheet music publishing company. The actual source of the lyrics is unclear, however, but they may have come out of a folk tradition".
-snip-
WARNING: That Wikipedia page contains what is now known as "the n word" fully spelled out [in the "1909 Rag" section.]

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SHOWCASE EXAMPLE: 'Alabama Bound' LEADBELLY, Blues Guitar Legend



RagtimeDorianHenry, Uploaded on Apr 15, 2009
-snip-
SyberkaPL, a commenter to this sound file’s viewer comment thread wrote that Leadbelly sang this song “with [the] Golden Gate Quartet”

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LYRICS: ALABAMA BOUND
(as sung by Leadbelly & The Golden Gate Quartet)

I'm Alabama bound
I'm Alabama bound
And if the train don't stop and turn around
I'm Alabama bound
Oh, don't you leave me here
Oh, don't you leave me here
But if you must go anyhow
Just leave a dime for beer
Oh don't you be like me
Oh don't you be like me
Drink your good sweet cherry wine
And let that whiskey be
Well your hair don't curve
And your eyes ain't blue
Well if you don't want me, Polly Ann
Well I don't want you
-snip-
reposted from http://www.lyricsfreak.com/l/leadbelly/alabama+bound_20231287.html

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BONUS SECTION - ADDITIONAL TEXT EXAMPLES OF & COMMENTS ABOUT THE SONG "ALABAMA BOUND"
From "Coonjine In Manhatten" http://lcweb2.loc.gov/wpa/07070413.html Garnett Laidlaw Eskew, 1939, pps. 10-11
"A song which was popular in America twenty years ago was "Alabama Bound." An ex-roustabout on the St. Louis levee once explained to me that this song was originally a Coonjine song. The steamboat Saltillo was a doughy little sternwheeler which late in the evening used to pull away periodically from the landing and turn her nose southward down the Mississippi. At Cairo she would turn into the Ohio and up that stream to the mouth of the Tennessee River, following the lovely channel of that river back into the Muscle Shoals section of Alabama which the great government dams are today being built to improve navigation.
With their usual happy facility for conferring euphonious nicknames, the Negroes called the Saltillo the Sal Teller.

Sal Teller leave St. Looey
Wid her lights tu'n down.
And you'll know by dat
She's Alabama bound. Alabama bound!
She's Alabama bound!
You'll know by dat
She's Alabama bound!
Doan you leave me here!
Doan you leave me here!
Ef you's gwine away and ain comin' back
Leave a dime fer beer!
Leave a dime fer beer
Leave a dime fer beer!
Brother, if yu gwine away
Leave a dime fer beer!
I ask de mate
Ter sell me some gin;
Says, I pay you, mister
When de Stack comes in
When de Stack comes in
When de Stack comes in!
Says, I pay you mister,
When de Stack comes in

The name Stack, recurring several times in the song, referred to one of the Lee Line boats, the Stacker Lee.
-snip-
Notice the similarity between this song's lyrics and Leadbelly's version of "Alabama Bound".

Read that manuscript for more information about and examples of coonjine songs.

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From http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=54404 "Steamboat coonjine songs", posted by Guest Q, 06 Dec 02 - 02:12 PM
"…“Also from [Newman L.] White, ["American Negro Folk Songs”] collected 1915, this one sung on Tennessee River boats.

The boat's up the river
And she won't come down;
I believe to my soul
She must be water bound.

The boat's up the river
And she won't come down;
One long-lonesome-blow
And she's Alabama bound.

(Reported separately, about the railroad). There are many verses to "Alabama Bound," the song changed through time and visited several topics:
She is a long tall yellow gal,
She wears a Mary Jane,
She wears a Mary Jane.
If that train don't leave dat rail
I am Alabama bound.
-snip-
"yellow gal"= light skinned Black woman

"wears a Mary Jane?" – My guess is that this refers to the style of shoes that are still known as "Mary Jane shoes" and "Mary Janes". Here’s an excerpt from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Jane_(shoe)
"Mary Jane is an American term (formerly trademarked) for a closed, low-cut shoe with one or more straps across the instep.

...Children's shoes secured by a strap over the instep and fastened with a buckle or button appeared in the early 19th century. Originally worn by both sexes, they began to be perceived as being mostly for girls in the 1930s in North America and the 1940s in Europe.[1] They were also popular with women in the 1920s."

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RELATED LINK
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. Also in that post I share my speculations about why I think that counjaille and coonjine songs and dances appear to have been largely forgotten.

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Thanks to Leadbelly and the Golden Gate Quartet for their musical legacy. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this sound file on YouTube.

Thank you for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

Wearing Red Dresses For Mourning (Song Examples & Comments)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post presents seven examples of Black American Old Time Music or early Blues songs in which red dresses symbolize mourning. This compilation isn't meant to represent all such songs.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

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FEATURED EXAMPLES
(These examples are presented in alphabetical order.)

Example #1: "Ella Speed"
Lyric Excerpt:
"When the women all heard that Ella Speed was dead
All goes back home and they re-ragged in red"
-snip-
[re-ragged = re-dressed; changed their clothes]

http://www.mikeballantyne.ca/transcriptions_other/ellaspeed.php [This link includes the song lyrics and the history behind the song.]

Sound file:
Lead Belly ~ Ella Speed



Jimsters, Published on Nov 20, 2012
The song Ella Speed by Lead Belly off of the CD You Don't Know My Mind.
-snip-
The publisher's summary also includes the song lyrics.

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Example #2: "Casey Jones"
Lyric Excerpt:
"Womens in Kansas all dressed in red,
Got de news dat Casey was dead.
Womens in Kansas all dressed in black,
Said,in fact, he was a crackerjack."

Dorothy Scarborough's 1925 book On The Trail Of Negro Folk Songs, p. 250

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Example #3: "Duncan And Brady"
Lyric Excerpt:
“Women all heard that Brady was dead,
Goes back home and they dresses in red
Come a sniffin' and a sighin' down the street,
In their big mother hubbards and their stockin' feet

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/l/leadbelly/duncan+and+brady_20184073.html

Sound file:
Duncan and Brady Leadbelly



songs1994, Uploaded on Feb 25, 2009

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Example #4: "John Henry"
Lyric Excerpt:
"John Henry had dat pretty liddle wife,
An' she went all dress up in red.
She walk ev'y day down de railroad track
To de place whar her steel-drivin' man fell dead."

Thomas W. Tally, Negro Folk Rhymes ,p. 105
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27195/27195-h/27195-h.htm

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Example #5: "John Henry" [Furry Lewis' version]
Lyric Excerpt
"When the womens in the West heard of John Henry's death
They couldn't stay at home in their beds
Some were dressed in white, some where dressed in red
Sayin Take me where John Henry fell dead...

Sound file:
'John Henry (The Steel Driving Man)' FURRY LEWIS (1928) Blues Guitar Legend



RagtimeDorianHenry, Uploaded on Apr 19, 2009

"John Henry (The Steel Driving Man) " (1928)
FURRY LEWIS

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Example #6: "Louis Collins"
Lyric Excerpt:
"Oh, when they heard that Louis was dead
all the people they dressed in red"

http://www.elyrics.net/read/m/mississippi-john-hurt-lyrics/louis-collins-lyrics.html

Sound file:
Mississippi John Hurt - Louis Collins (1928)



fulanodetal4, Published on Jun 21, 2012

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Example #6: "Poor Howard"
Lyric Excerpt:
Ol' Howard, po' boy
(plays the tune he just sung)
Ol' Howard he is dead an' gone
left me here to sing this song
left me here to sob and mourn (or moan)

Pretty little girl with a red dress on
(above line repeated two times)
God knows, pretty little girl with a red dress on"

http://www.lyricsmania.com/poor_howard_lyrics_leadbelly.html

Sound File:
Leadbelly - Poor Howard



3006khz, Published on Dec 30, 2012

Poor Howard (Green Corn). The audio is hard to hear, but, i think this is one of Lead Belly's coolest tunes.

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EDITOR COMMENTS - IN SEARCH OF AFRICAN EXPLANATIONS FOR THIS LYRICAL FEATURE
Black Americans -along with other people in the United States- have long considered wearing the color red to be highly inappropriate at funerals or at public or private gatherings before the funeral service such as "viewings" or "wakes" (both of these may mean the same thing in the United States).

However, it seems to me that lyrics in those old songs about Black women wearing red were more than a rhyming device, but were a reflection of an expectation in [at least] some communities for Black women to wear red as an expression of their mourning. That conclusion led me to assume that this tradition was a remnant of African culture which was passed on as a normative custom, but was later disgarded in order to conform with mainstream American culture.

This speculation led me on an online search for information about and examples of traditional West African or Central African cultures in which the color red was associated with death or with mourning someone's death. I focused on those geographical regions because the African ancestors of most Black Americans came from those parts of Africa.*

Prior to a new search I re-read a Mudcat Folk & Blues forum discussion thread "The death of Louis Collins" http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=3132. That thread includes lyrics of & comments about the song "Louis Collins" and some other Old Time Music/Early Blues songs which include references to women wearing red for mourning. I particularly focused on this comment that Guest,Bruce, Date: 04 Oct 02 cited and McGrath of Harlow 04 Oct 02 - 08:39 PM quoted from a Grateful Dead lyric blog:

Catherine Yronwode helpfully explains a bit more about the reference to "dressed in red":
"White folks, accustomed to black being the colour worn both for funerals and for post-funereal mourning, sometimes think that references in blues songs to dressing in red signify a party atmosphere or happiness over a person's death. Not so. In Africa, and among African-Americans in earlier times, drssing in red has been a funerary custom. As such, it is reminiscent of burial with red ochre pigment, which was used among neolithic people (the "red paint people") the world around. The religious idea behind this custom is that as a baby is born from the mother's womb through blood, so will rebirth occur (after interrment in Mother Earth) through blood."

*http://www3.clearlight.com/~acsa/introjs.htm?/~acsa/songfile/LOUISCOL.HTM
-snip-
While that comment interested me, the references to red being a funeral custom in Africa and among African Americans in earlier times was much too general for me. And as my online search for information about early Black American funeral customs was yielded no information about standard colors worn by mourners, I changed gears and started looking for more details about traditional African funeral customs.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red#Red_in_different_cultures_and_traditions:
"In Central Africa, Ndembu warriors rub themselves with red paint during celebrations. Since their culture sees the color as a symbol of life and health, sick people are also painted with it. Like most Central African cultures, the Ndembu see red as ambivalent, better than black but not as good as white.[123] In other parts of Africa, however, red is a color of mourning, representing death.[124] Because red bears are associated with death in many parts of Africa, the Red Cross has changed its colors to green and white in parts of the continent.[125]"
-snip-
Note: It seems to me that "bears are associated" in that sentence is a typographical error for "bears [carries] an association with". In any event, I'm not satisfied with the much too general comment of red having that meaning in "many parts of Africa".
-snip-
A number of websites indicate that the color red is used in South Africa to symbolize mourning or death. However, most of those websites don't indicate whether "South Africa" refers to the nation or the geographical region. Furthermore, hardily any of those websites indicate the specific ethnic group/s in South Africa where it was or it is traditional to wear red for mourning.

Here's one exception to those much too general websites about the meaning of colors in African cultures:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/across-zimbabwe-red-rags-signify-a-nation-in-mourning-855428.html
"Across Zimbabwe, red rags signify a nation in mourning"
By Daniel Howden in Mpopoma township , Matabeleland
Friday 27 June 2008

"Red rags have been tied around lamp posts that don't light and hung from bus shelters. Giant V-signs have been painted over the pot-holed thoroughfares. Bulawayo, the opposition stronghold, awakes today to find it has been painted red. As Zimbabweans turn out to vote in a one-man election, a final message of defiance was being daubed overnight on the only public space available to the opposition: the roads.

One of the key organisers of the Movement for Democratic Change's "red campaign" who identified himself only as Thomas, said the symbolism was clear. "Red is the colour of the MDC. In African culture, it is also the colour of mourning. We are mourning the death of democracy, or the little we had of democracy."
-snip-
Notwithstanding that quoted comment, red is NOT the standard color of mourning in all African cultures.

Another website http://www.cimh.org/Handouts/June%2027-28,%202011%20Cultural%20Competence%20Summit/Tues.Jun28_300-430_WS-8A_Blanch_Handout1.pdf provides these meanings for red:
"Red: mourning = Cote d’Ivoire and South Africa"
Red: Nigeria –wealth, vitality, aggression

Red: Some areas [of Africa]- good luck
-snip-
But, for instance, that same website indicates that the color "orange" means mourning in Egypt.

It wasn't until I found online articles & videos of Ghanaian funeral customs that I find information about red being used for mourning. In that West African nation, the standard colors for funerals are black or red and black. Could this traditional Ghanaian custom be the source of the Black American Old Time Music & early Blues lyric feature of referring to women wearing red for mourning? I think so.
-snip-
Update: December 13, 2015
This article about color symbolism in Ancient Egypt http://www.egyptianmyths.net/colors.htm indicates that "Red (desher) was the color of life and of victory. During celebrations, ancient Egyptians would paint their bodies with red ochre and would wear amulets made of cornelian, a deep red stone. Seth, the god who stood at the prow of the sun's barque and slew the serpent Apep daily, had red eyes and hair.

Red was also a symbol of anger and fire. A person who acted "with a red heart" was filled with rage. "To redden" meant "to die". Seth while the god of victory over Apep, was also the evil murderer of his brother Osiris. His red coloration could take on the meaning of evil or victory depending on the context in which he is portrayed. Red was commonly used to symbolize the fiery nature of the radiant sun and serpent amulets representing the "Eye of Re" (the fiery, protective, and possibly malevolent aspect of the sun) were made of red stones.

The normal skin tone of Egyptian men was depicted as red, without any negative connotation."
-snip-
That same article notes that "In ancient Egypt, black (kem) was a symbol of death and of the night. Osiris, the king of the afterlife was called "the black one." One of the few real-life people to be deified, Queen Ahmose-Nefertari was the patroness of the necropolis. She was usually portrayed with black skin, although she was not a negro. Anubis, the god of embalming was shown as a black jackal or dog, even though real jackals and dogs are typically brown.

As black symbolized death it was also a natural symbol of the underworld and so also of resurrection. Unexpectedly perhaps, it could also be symbolic of fertility and even life! The association with life and fertility is likely due to the abundance provided by the dark, black silt of the annually flooding Nile. The color of the silt became emblematic of Egypt itself and the country was called "kemet" (the Black Land) by its people from early antiquity."
-snip-
I wonder if the color red was/is worn in Ghana, West Africa to symbolize the victory of life over death (the color black).

Be that as it may, it still seems likely to me that the references to wearing red in associating with death that are found in African American Blues songs and folk songs can be traced to Ghana and perhaps also other African customs.

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RELATED PANCOCOJAMS POSTS
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/09/colors-associated-with-funerals-in.html for a pancocojams post about colors worn at Ghanaian funerals.

Also, click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/09/various-african-funeral-customs.html for a pancocojams post on various other African funeral traditions including the nation of South African custom of "after tears parties".

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Thanks to all the known and unknown composers of these featured songs. Thanks also to all the performers who are featured in this post. And thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these YouTube examples.

Thank you for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

Jawbone Songs From The United States (sound file & videos)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part II of a three part series about songs that include the verse "jawbone walk, jawbone talk/jawbone eat with a knife and fork." This post showcases one sound file and two videos of "Jawbone Walk" songs from the United States.

Part I contains information and lyrics of several old time songs from the United States that include that "jawbone walk, jawbone talk"... verse. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/09/jawbone-walk-jawbone-talk-information.html for that post.

Part III of this series focuses on the Caribbean song "Tingalayo". Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-childrens-song-tingalayo.html for that post.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

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FEATURED EXAMPLES

Example #1:Leadbelly - Jawbone Walk



benigadol, Uploaded on Nov 7, 2010
-snip-
I've not been able to find a transcription of this song online. I can decipher the "jawbone walk, jawbone talk/jawbone eat with a knife and fork" verse. However, unfortunately, I'm not been able to decipher enough of this song to post a transcription.

The lyrics to Leadbelly's version may be the same as or similar to the lyrics which are included in Part I of this series. That link is found above.

Also, click http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/old-time-music/old-time-songs/walk_jawbone.html for lyrics to a version of the Jawbone song.

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Editor:
Notice the jawbone instrument that is played in the following videos.

Example #2: Walk Jawbone



Dmculgan, Uploaded on Apr 26, 2011

Written by Silas S. Steele in 1844 for Cool White. A fellow sings of his simple life's pleasures even as his situation goes from bad to worse. Performed by the Camptown Shakers at a 2010 concert (Dave Culgan- banjo, Renny Allgyer - fiddle, King Bennett - tambourine).
-snip-
"Cool White" was the stage name for a popular White minstrel singer.

I can decipher the verse "Walk Jawbone... Heree come Sally with the booties on" [or "her big boots on"] _

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Example #3: Joe Bone Plays Walk Jawbone at the Stephen Foster Old-TIme Music Weekend, 9 12



Chuck Levy, Published on Jan 1, 2013
Joe Bone (Greg Allen, Bob Murphy, and Caitlin Murphy) at the Florida Masters concert at the Stephen Foster Old-Time Music Weekend, September, 2012.
-snip-
I'm unable to transcribe this song. I'm unsure if it contains the "jawbone walk/jawbone talk" verse. However, I think the chorus is something like "jawbone jawbone walk away".

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Thanks to all those vocalists and musicians who are featured in these examples. Thanks also to the publishers of this sound file and these videos.

Thank you for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

Jawbone Walk, Jawbone Talk (information & lyrics)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part I of a three part series about songs that include the verse "jawbone walk, jawbone talk/jawbone eat with a knife and fork." This post contains information and lyrics of several old time songs from the United States that include that verse.

Part II showcases one sound file and two videos of "Jawbone Walk" songs from the United States. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/09/jawbone-songs-from-united-states-sound.html for that post.

Part III of this series focuses on the Caribbean song "Tingalayo". Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-childrens-song-tingalayo.html for that post.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

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INFORMATION ABOUT JAWBONE INSTRUMENT AND SONGS
From Google Book: The Alabama Folk Lyric: A Study in Origins and Media of Dissemination
edited by Ray Broadus Browne
The Jawbone Song . 120 [page 311]

[This excerpt is presented under the heading "Pseudo Negro Songs]

"The jawbone as a musical instrument and as humor in song has long been popular, especially with Negroes. Scarborough (On The Trail Of Negro Folk-Songs, pp. 102-104), printed several Negro songs mentioning the jawbone as an instrument – “the jawbone of an horse, or ox or mule, with the teeth left in, which makes a queer song when a key or piece of metal was drawn across the teeth.”
For an interesting headnote see Randolph (II, 333). The comic value of the jawbones were recognized by the minstrels and taken up by them. White (American Negro Folk-Songs, pp 305, 333) cites an old minstrel song entitled “The Old Jawbone” was printed in the The Negro Minstrel (Glasgow, 1850, p. 14) and “Walk Jaw Bone” was published in the Negro Forget-Me-Not Songbook (1847, p.55)...

It was also published in Christy’s Negro Melodies No 4 (Phila. ca. 1854, p.18) and in Old Dog Tray Songster (Baltimore, 18-, p. 248), in a version that deserves printing here for comparison:
De jawbone hung agin de wall
De gals all thought dat it would fall.
But dar it hung till de gals all gone,
Den hurra for de old jawbone.

Chorus:
Den walk Jawbone, ginger log
Jaw bone gwine de whole hog...

[Includes text of two songs called “Old Jawbone” collected from two sources in 1952 and 1953]
-snip-
"agin" - against
"hurra" - hurray

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From http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=52308
Posted by Guest Richie, October 10, 2002
"The origins and branches of Jawbone/Jawbone Walk and the Irish "Walk Jawbone" are numerous. The lyrics seem to be somewhat interchangeable. The tune has minstrel origins, with 'jawbone' probably referring to a stock character in such shows, says Charles Wolfe (1991).

There are early biblical references to the Jawbone: The jawbone was used by Samson, who slew a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass.

In the US, the Jaw Bone is a dance, an instrument, a stock character in minstrel shows as well as a fiddle tune and song.

Here is some info about the uses of the jawbone as an instrument:

"The jawbone was also a recognized instrument in 19th century African-American traditional music." Ceolas

"Now the ol' jawbone, that is a humble instrument. It does help by the way, if the jawbone is removed from the head, stripped and cleaned and dried. Some people keep the lower jaw intact so it has a U shape suitable for carrying. But only one side works too, should you want to share." From http://listproc.ucdavis.edu/archives/banjo-l/log0005/0109.html.

"A jawbone played with a stick so the teeth would rattle was a minstrel percussion instrument - probably borrowed from blacks." From Leadbelly page 19, Charles Wolfe, Kip Lornel.

"The Jaw Bone was a plantation music/minstrel show icon where it was often used as a rhythm instrument in place of, or along side of, bones. Hence there are a lot of mid 19th century songs, some parodies of each other, with Jawbone titles or references. Steven Foster sang of how Angelina Baker left him to weep a tear and beat on the old Jawbone "De Old Jawbone" chorus goes:

"Walk Jawbone with the Turkey too, Never mind that Boogerboo." ...

Hans Nathan (in his book Dan Emmett) records it was sung at a Tennessee frolic in the early 1830's, and it has some similarities to minstrel Dan Emmett's tune (recorded by Uncle Dave Macon and the Fruit Jar Drinkers) "Jordan is a Hard Road to Travel, I Believe." The fiddle tune "Jordan is a Hard Road to Travel" is also known as "Old Jawbone."...

Wolfe found the tune in old minstrel collections, some of which indicate the song was associated with the "Colored Saboyard" Cool White- Words and Music by Silas Sexton Steele "Walk, Jaw Bone" (1844)(written expressly for Cool White)[Source: pages 210-211 from "Minstrel Songs, Old and New" (1883).

Library of Congress recordings of the tune/song prior to WWII were collected from Florida to Ohio. See also the variant "Johnson City Rag." Various ditties have been sung to the melody."
-
[Also, here are two posts on that same discussion threead by by "Guest, Oct. 11, 2002]

"The use of a jawbone, the teeth scraped with a hollow stick, was noted in Florida in 1837 (Epstein, Sinful Tunes and Spirituals, p. 156). The jawbone was mentioned in 1777 (Epstein, p. 49). Probably was a practice brought over from Africa."

**
" An 1856 edition of one of the minstrel volumes was printed in Ireland. I have lost the reference to the title of the book, but it did contain the Jawbone song. It also appeared in "The Negro Minstrel," Glasgow, 1850 (Talley, Negro Folk Rhymes).

Minstrel songs from the States were very popular in the British Isles, and the minstrel troupes went over and played there. The books and tours may be the "Irish" source."*
-snip-
A previous commenter had asked whether there was a source of the "Jawbone" song from Ireland. Another commenter in that discussion thread or another discussion thread about this song or the song "Tingalayo" indicated that the referent to "Irish" here may have actually been "Scottish". [As an aside, there is a "Jawbone Walk" in a famous park in Edinburgh, Scotland. That walkway is so named because a whale's jawbone is placed at the end of this tree lined path. Consequently, that walk may have no connection to the Jawbone Walk song.] In any event, the information about minstrel groups [some of whom were Black] performing in Europe is quite interesting.

Also note that Thomas W. Talley was an African American educator & folklorist. His 1922 book Negro Folk Rhymes was a collection of songs that were sung by African Americans. That said, all of those songs didn't originate with African Americans.

Furthermore, with regard to minstrel songs and old time songs, in the 19th century and early 20th century the referent "Negro songs" sometimes referred to songs that were composed by White people in [supposedly] imitation of "Negroes". Those songs may have include actual verses from Black plantation dance songs, but those sources usually can't be identified.

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From a comment that I posted December 2004 on this Mudcat thread: http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=13654
Lyr Req: Lula Gal (Jawbone Walk)
"Also, I found a similar verse in a passage about plantation dances and instruments in Paul Oliver's "The Story of The Blues" {Radnor,PA, Clinton Book Co; third printing, 1973;p.49}

In Texas, where the dances were subject to many ethnic influences, Mance Lipscomb played the Buck and Wing, a plantation dance with bird-like steps and flapping arms, the Buzzard Lope, with hunched shoulders and loose-limbed slides, the Hop-Scop which was danced in "stop-time", with suspended rhythm, and the Heel and Toe Polka which hinted at European origin. Most blues guitarist of an older generation, or songsters, and musicians played for such balls for both white and coloured people, who danced similar dances. Henry Thomas, "Ragtime Texas", called out the sets of his Old Country Stomp while strumming his guitar and playing his pan-pipe "quills".

Get your partners, promenade
Promenade 'round the hall
Fall in this side of the hall
take yo'(your)partners-Promenade

Miss Jenny eat, Miss Jenny talk,
Miss Jenny eat with knife and fork

The playing of "quills" is an indication of Thomas' generation.
A Pan's pipe [is]of but three reeds, made from single joints of common brake and called by the English speaking Negroes "the quills"."
-snip-
The "jawbone walk, jawbone talk"/jawbone eat with a knife and fork" verse is also found in the Caribbean Calypso song "Tingalayo. Read a comment about how that could have occurreed in Part III of this series.

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LYRICS FOR TWO JAWBONE SONGS (FROM THE USA)
Example #1

JAWBONE
Samson, shout! Samson, moan!
Samson, bring on yō' Jawbone.
Jawbone, walk! Jawbone, talk!
Jawbone, eat wid a knife an fo'k.
Walk, Jawbone! Jinny, come alon'!
Yon'er goes Sally wid de bootees on.
Jawbone, ring! Jawbone, sing!
Jawbone, kill dat wicked thing.

Source: Thomas W. Talley Negro Folk Rhymes: Wise And Otherwise (originally published in 1922).
Electronic book can be found at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27195/27195-h/27195-h.htm

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Example #2

JAWBONE
My wife died in Tennessee,
She sent her jawbone back to me.
Laid my jawbone on the fence,
Ain’t seen nothin' of my jawbone since.

Old jawbone, Jinny get along,
In come Sally with the big boots on.

Who's been here since I've been gone?
A pretty little girly with the red dress on.
She pulled it off, I put it on,
In come Sally with the big boots on.

Old Jawbone, &c.

Jawbone walk and Jawbone talk,
Jawbone eat with a knife and fork.
Laid my jawbone on the fence,
Ain’t seen nothin' of my jawbone since.

Old Jawbone, &c.
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=26693
Posted by Bud Savoie
Date: 21 Jan 01 - 01:19 PM

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Thanks to all those who have collected and published these old time songs. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.

Thank you for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

"You Can't Lose Me Charlie" (with lyrics & comments)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post provides two sound files of Leadbelly performing the song "You Can't Lose Me Charlie" (also known as "You Can't Lose Me Cholly"). Transcriptions of those renditions are also presented in this posts as are one other version & one fragment of another version of that song.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

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FEATURED SOUND FILES
Editor: Notice the different tempos & verses (including verse order) for these two Leadbelly renditions of "You Can't Lose Me Charlie". These two examples are posted in chronological order based on their posting date with the oldest dated example presented first.

Example #1: 'You Can't Lose-A Me Cholly' LEADBELLY, Blues Guitar Legend



RagtimeDorianHenry,·Uploaded on Apr 26, 2009
-snip-
LYRICS: YOU CAN'T LOSE ME CHARLIE [Version #1: fast tempo]
(Leadbelly)

I went a-rowing and my gal went too,
Down on the bottom and the boat broke through,
Every time she turned around she said it so funny,

CHORUS [2x]
You can't lose-a me, Charlie,
You can't lose-a me, boy.

Up to Willie Winston's I went a roading,
Down on my knees, I was doing little courting,
Every time she turned around she said it so funny

CHORUS [2x]

Hog and sheep they went to the pasture,
Hog said to sheep, You'd better go a little faster,
Every time she turned around, she said it so funny,

CHORUS [2x]

I got a yella gal I can't keep.
She use the dollar up every week
Every time she turned around, she said it so funny,

CHORUS [2x]

[instrumental]

I got a yella gal I can't keep.
She use up the dollar money every week
Every time she turned around, she said it so funny,
I got a pretty boy to bring me the money.

CHORUS [2x]

Hog and sheep they went to the pasture,
Hog said to sheep, You'd better go a little faster,
Every time she turned around, she said it so funny,

CHORUS [2x]

[instrumental]

CHORUS [2x]

Up to Willie Winston's I went a roading,
Down on my knees, I was doing little courting,
Every time she turned around she said it so funny

CHORUS [2x]

[instrumental]

CHORUS [2x]

[continue singing the chorus interspersed with guitar playing]
-snip-
Transcription by Azizi Powell from the above sound file.

I'm uncertain of the words that are given in italics. Additions & corrections are welcome.
-snip-
In the context of this song, "You can't lose me" means
Whatever you do, Charlie, "I'm yours forever" (You're stuck with me."

"Pretty boy" means "handsome man".

The name "Willie" is probably a nickname of the female name "Wilhemina". That line probably means something like "I traveled down the road to Willie's house to court her [meet with her for the purpose of developing a romantic relationship that hopefully would lead to marriage.]

The phrase "yella gal" refers to light skinned Black women.

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Example #2: Leadbelly "You Can't Lose Me, Charlie"



マッケンジー 姥捨山, Uploaded on Dec 19, 2010

From "Leadbelly"
-snip-
LYRICS: YOU CAN'T LOSE ME CHARLIE [Version #2 -slow tempo]
(Leadbelly)-

CHORUS [2x]
You can't lose-a me, Charlie,
You can't lose-a me, boy.

Hog and sheep they went to the pasture,
Hog said to sheep, You'd better go a little faster,
Every time she turned around, she said it so funny,

CHORUS [2x]

Up to Willie Winston's I went a roading,
Down on my knees, I was doing little courting,
Every time she turned around she said it so funny

CHORUS [2x]

I went a-rowing and my gal went too,
Down on the bottom and the boat broke through,
Every time she turned around she said it so funny,

CHORUS [2x]

Leadbelly speaks these words as commentary:
Me and this gal we had done made a lot of money.
And she used up so much money...She used up a barrel of money every week. And you know that was a shame. I couldn't
spend so much money a week to save my life. But then I look at this gal and I go and tell my friends:

[Begins singing again]

I got a yella gal I can't keep.
[Leadbelly intersperses this comment:
The reason I don't like a yella gal is they use too much money.

[[Begins singing again]

She use up the dollar money every week
Every time she turned around, she said it so funny,
I got a pretty boy to bring me the money.

CHORUS [2x]

[Instrumental]

Hog and sheep they went to the pasture,
Hog said to sheep, You'd better go a little faster,
Every time she turned around, she said it so funny,

CHORUS [2x]
-snip-
Click http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=130575 for a discussion thread about this song.
Here's another verse that blogger Bob Coltman shared which isn't included in either of the renditions given above:

"Me and my brother went down the road,
Tryin' to get some money to buy a gourd
Got to have a gourd to drink water outa"
-snip-
Bob Coltman wrote this comment as a preface to Leadbelly's "You Can't Lose Me Charlie" lyrics which he shared:
"Who knows how Leadbelly learned this? Probably at third- or fourth-hand, especially since I have been unable to find any evidence that "Can't Lose Me, Charlie" was ever recorded either for the pop, blues, jazz or oldtime country market.

But however he learned it, Leadbelly learned enough of the original song to pick up a couple of verses (#s 1 and 3 below), though not complete ... they survive as orphaned couplets only.

By the way, the spelling "Cholly," as in "Been On the Cholly So Long," has a number of slang meanings: dope, the bum, a portion of a train where a hobo can ride, etc. In "You Can't Lose Me, Cholly," however, it is just the name "Charlie," derived from Harry S. Miller's* original."...
-snip-
Harry S. Miller was a White American who wrote "You Can't Lose Me Charlie" in 1893. That song is categorized as a "coon song".
Here's information about "coon songs" from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coon_song
"Coon songs were a genre of music that presented a racist and stereotyped image of Blacks. They were popular in the United States and around the English-speaking world from 1880[1] to 1920.[2]
-snip-
Click the link to the Mudcat discussion thread given above for the original lyrics to Miller's composition of "You Can't Lose Me Charlie".

****
ADDITIONAL VERSIONS

YOU'RE TRYING TO LOSE ME CHARLIE
(As sung by Paul Clayton, 1961 or 1962)

I was down at Mrs. Johnson's the other night,
Courtin' with a little girl, hid out of sight,
Down on my knees, I was a-tellin'
And my ol' girl's outside, she was a-yellin',

Chorus: Says you're tryin' to lose me, Charlie,
You're tryin' to lose me, Charlie,
Howso and ever in all kinds of weather,
Well, you can't lose me, 'deed you can't.

I was down on the railroad, the train a-comin' fast,
An' I stepped on the other side, just let it pass,
I caught the train, train was a-flyin',
An' my ol' girl caught me, and she was a yellin',

Chorus: Well, you tryin' to lose me, Charlie ...

I's all out on the boat, I's a-doin' little drinkin',
An' the bottom bust out, it commenced a-sinkin',
An' the ol' girl grabbed me, says, I been thinkin',

Cho2: Well, you tryin' to lose me, Charlie,
You tryin' to lose me, Charlie,
Howso and ever, we will all die together,
Well, you can't lose me, 'deed you can't.
-snip-
These lyrics were posted by Bob Coltman to that same Mudcat thread whose link is given above.

****
UNTITLED SONG CLIP
Editor: This song clip is categorized as a "shine song" (a song sung by Black shoe shine workers". These workers were generally referred to as "shoe shine boys" although most of those workers were adults.

From On The Trail Of Negro Folk-SongsBy Dorothy Scarborough Assisted By Ola Lee Quiledge Copyright, 1925 By Harvard University Press

Online book http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/negro/folk-songs%20-%200314.htm
"Mr. Morrow says: "The Negro who sang this song was shining my shoes, and when I asked him to give another verse, he stopped. A little substantial persuasion, however, brought forth another, which he timed to the strokes of his shining cloth as it was drawn across my shoes.

" Another Negro boy had a different shine reel, for they all have something of the sort. He was shy and would sing but one.

"I went to de ribber an' my gal went, too,

Stepped in de boat an' de boat went through.

Down de ribber we went, singin' an' er-huggin' an' er-kissin', She say, 'You can't lose me, Charlie.'"
-snip-
This song is reformatted into lines.

****
Thanks to Harry S. Miller. the orginal composer of this song and thanks to all subsequent lyricists of versions of this song.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

Gandy Dancers & Linin' Track Sound Files & Videos

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post is Part II of a two part series on the African American work song "Can't You Line 'em ("Linin' Track", "Tie-Shuffling Chant"). "Can't You Line 'em is an African American work song that was composed by "Gandy Dancers" (men who worked on the railways "linin' track".)

Part II of this series features a YouTube sound file of several lining track songs as performed by former Gandy Dancers. That sound file includes video of a re-enactment of lining track as well as photographs of lining and video clips of a re-enactment of lining track.

Part II of this series also showcases one sound file & transcription of a version of that song as performed by Blues/Folk artist "Leadbelly, and three renditions of the song "Linin' Track" as performed by contemporary vocalists & musicians. My transcriptions of those songs as performed by those contemporary artists are also included in this post

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

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/10/early-versions-of-cant-you-line-em.html Early Versions Of "Can't You Line' Em" ("Linin' Track") for Part I of this series. Part I of this series features early versions of this song & provides general information about Gandy Dancers.

Also, click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/05/boom-shakalaka-and-chakalaka-food.html  for a May 2023 pancocojams post entitled "Boom Shakalaka" And "Chakalaka" Food (Information & YouTube Videos). Part I of that post presents some other uses of the vocables "boom shakalaka" (or closely sounding words) included the 1981 comedy film Stripes when boom shakalaka" is used in a military cadence,  the 1992 British Reggae song "Boom Shakalak" by Apache Indian, the 1992 Da Lynch Mob song "Guerilas In The Midst", and the NBA Jam video games 

 ****
FEATURED SOUND FILES & VIDEOS

Example #1: Gandy Dancers



Uploaded by folkstreamer on Jun 23, 2008

Musical traditions and recollections of eight retired African-American railroad track laborers whose occupational folk songs were once heard on railroads that crisscross the South.
-snip-
This video's visuals & narratation are a historical treasure. The video producer includes excerpts of Gandy Dancer songs as text superimposed on the screen.

****
Example #2: Can't You Line 'Em - Lead Belly



Uploaded by maolchalium on Sep 12, 2008

Classic Leadbelly number. Unknown recording date.
-snip-
From what I’ve read online, this Leadbelly performance was recorded sometimes between 1940 to 1943

LYRICS: LININ' TRACK
[traditional]

Ho, boys, is you right?
I done got right
All I hate about linin' track
These ol' bars 'bout to bust my back

Chorus:
Ho, boys, cancha line 'em –track
Ho, boys, cancha line 'em -track
Ho, boys, cancha line 'em -track
Here we go linin track

If I could I surely would
Stand on the rock where Moses stood
Ho, boys, cancha line 'em –track
Ho, boys, cancha line 'em –tracka lack
Ho, boys, cancha line 'em –tracka lack
Here we go linin track

Moses stood on the Red Sea shore
Smotin that water with a two-by-four
Ho, boys, cancha line 'em –tracka lack
Ho, boys, cancha line 'em –tracka lack
Ho, boys, cancha line 'em –tracka lack
Here we go linin track

[Transcription from the sound file by Azizi Powell, 10/22/2012]
**
This same version is also on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpGtnxQl05s "Leadbelly - Line Em'"
-snip-
"Smotin that water with a two by four" = hitting that water with a board [to cause the sea to separate and yield dry land as indicated in the Bible]

**
The words "track" and "trackalack" aren't clearly pronounced.

As an aside, I believe that the word "shakalaka" in the phrase "boom shakalaka" has its earliest source in the "trackalack" (and similarly sounding) phrases from the Gandy Dancer's track linin' songs. However, a more direct source for "boom shakalaka" is the "Boom shaka-laka-laka" riff that is found in Sly & The Family Stone's 1969 hit song "I Wanna Take You Higher". Here's an excerpt of that song's lyrics:
[Freddie:] Feeling's gettin stronger
[Larry:] Music's gettin longer too
[Rose:] Music is flashin me
[Sly:] I want to take you higher
Baby baby baby light my fire

[All:] Boom shaka-laka-laka Boom shaka-laka-laka"....

Source: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/slythefamilystone/iwanttotakeyouhigher.html

**
Click https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakalaka for other examples of the use of the vocalization "shakalaka" (boom shakalaka).

**
In Lead Belly's rendition of Can't You Line 'Em" that is given above, it's clear that he is singing “here we go linin track”. His renditions of this song where that line is given as “See Eloise gonna linin track” are from other performances.

From http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=28408 "Who was Eloise in Leadbelly's Linin'", posted by Roger in Baltimore, Jun 05 - 01:06 PM
"Document released a CD in September of 2004 called Leadbelly Live: New York 1947 and Austin, Texas 1949. On it, he does a spoken introduction of Linin' Track that talks about Ella Louise as a woman who is calling out the lead, directing the other workers how to line the track... I, too, suspect that Lead Belly's story may be apocryphal..."
-snip-
The "Related Links" section of Part I of this series contains an additional hyperlink to a Mudcat Folk/Blues forum discussion about the meaning of the name "Eloise" in the "Linin' Track" song.
**
Here's a pertinent quote from commenter "12-stringer" on the Mudcat Blues/Folk discussion forum:
Date: 30 Jan 06 - 05:25 PM http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=19043 Lyr Add: Linin' Track
[It's] "Not remotely likely Leadbelly wrote it ['Linin Track"]from scratch," though he standardized and popularized it. I suspect at least some of his songs were picked up while he was chauffeuring John Lomax on various field trips after he got out of Angola [prison]..."

****
Example #3 - LYRICS: LININ' TRACK*
[traditional]

Ho, boys, is you right?
I done got right.

What I hate about linin' track
These ol' bars 'bout to bust my back
Singin

Chorus:
Ho, boys, can’t you line 'em –trackalack
Ho, boys, can’t you line 'em -track
Ho, boys, can’t you line 'em
See how Eloise go linin' track*

Woman and I'se lyin in the shade
Talkin 'bout the money that I ain't made
Sayin

Chorus

Moses stood on the Red Sea shore
Smote that water with ah two-by-four

Chorus

If I could I surely would
Stand on the rock that ah Moses stood

Chorus

????
The bosses ain't hot I pray to die [?]

Chorus

Mary Martha Luke and John
All of the disciples are dead and gone.

Ho, boys, can’t you line 'em –trackalack
Ho, boys, can’t you line 'em -track
Ho, boys, can’t you line 'em

[instrumental]
Ho, boys, can’t you line 'em –trackalack
Ho, boys, can’t you line 'em -track
Ho, boys, can’t you line 'em
See Eloise gonna linin' track*

I may be right. I may be wrong.
But you sure gonna miss me when I'm gone.

Chorus [sung multiple times with other another singer joining in.]

-snip-
Transcription by Azizi Powell from the video Austin Walkin' Cane - Linin' Track (Tie-Shuffling Chant). This video doesn't appear to be on YouTube anymore.

*This line might be "See how wese gonna linin' track".

??? I'm not sure about this verse's lyrics. [from 1:40 - 1:44]

Additions & corrections for this transcription -and all other transcriptions on this page - are very much appreciated.

****
Example #4: Linin' Track - The Johnny Possum Band



Uploaded by johnnypossum on May 22, 2009

….The Johnny Possum Band performing 'Linin' Track'. Recorded live at the Harbour Light Theatre in Lyttelton, New Zealand….

LYRICS: LININ' TRACK
(Traditional)

Ho, boys, is you right?
[We right]
I done got right

All I hate about linin' track
These ol' bars 'bout to bust my back

Chorus:
Ho, boys, can’t you line 'em –trackalack
Ho, boys, can’t you line 'em -trackalack
Ho, boys, can’t you line 'em -trackalack
Let's see how wese gonna linin' track

Mary and the baby were settin' in the shade
Thinkin' of the money that I ain't made
Mary, Marthy, Luke and John
Well all them 'ciples now they're dead and gone

Chorus

Moses stood on the Red Sea shore
Battin' at the waves with a two-by-four
[Hey, boy]
Well if I could I surely would
Stand on the rock where Moses stood

Chorus

Down in the holler below the field
Angels are workin' on my chariot wheel
I told my Lord I was ready to go
He sent me down way below.
Chorus

Ho, boys, is you right?
[We right]
I done got right

All I hate about linin' track
These ol' bars 'bout to bust my back

[Transcription by Azizi Powell from video, 10/22/2012]
-snip-
Explanations for selected words
'ciples = disciples

battin = hitting

Down in the holler (hollar)= a geographic formation similar to a valley, or a ravine

He sent me down way below – to hell

****
Example #5: The Dream Blues Team - Lining Track (2011)



Uploaded by AlruneRod2811 on Aug 14, 2011

Svante Sjöblom: mandolin - Olav Poulsen: slideguitar - Peter Nande: harp - Paul Banks: vocal & guitar - Mik Schack: washboard - Hugo Rasmussen: bass - Tim Lothar: drums - An amateur footage shot at Huset in Aalborg, Denmark - August 2011

LYRICS: LININ' TRACK
[traditional]

Hey, boys, is you right?
I done got right
All I hate about linin' track
These ol' bars 'bout to bust my back

Chorus:
Hey, boys, don’t you 'em
Hey, boys, don’t you line 'em
Hey, boys, don’t you line 'em
See Eloise go linin track


Well if I could I surely would
Stand on the rock where Moses stood
I don’t know but I’ve been told
Streets of heaven are paved with gold.
saida

Chorus
Yeah-ah!

[instrumental]

Hey, boys, don’t you 'em
Hey, boys, don’t you line 'em
Hey, boys, don’t you line 'em
See Eloise go linin track

Hey, boys, don’t you 'em
Hey, boys, don’t you line 'em
Hey, boys, don’t you line 'em
See Eloise go linin track

And if I could I surely would
Stand on the rock where Moses stood
Yeah, I don’t know but I’ve been told
Streets of heaven are paved with gold

Said ah
[chorus] 2x
-snip-
[Transcription by Azizi Powell from the video, 10/22/2012]

****
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND THANKS
Thanks to all who composed this song, thanks to the early performers of this song, and thanks to those performers of this song that are featured in this post. My thanks also to John & Allan Lomax for collecting & recording this song. Thanks to all those whose comments I reposted and thanks to the producers and publishers of these featured sound clips and videos.

Thank you for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.