FOLK MUSIC OF THE UNITED STATES LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Recording Laboralory AFS L1 WASIIINGTON
ANGLO-AMERICAN BALLADS
From Ih., Archive of Folk Sonl.: Edited by AI.n Lomu
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INTRODUCTION by Wayne D. Shirley Reference Librarian, Music Division
In 1942 the Arehive of Folk Song in tbe scriptions of the texts sung on the reeords and Library of Congress issued its first albums of notes on the music and performers. . reeorded folk musie, thereby maki,'g some of its Attempts to devise some method for dis rieh collection of field recordings available to tributing the Archive's recorded treasures had the public. The recordings were issued under begun in 1941 with the establishment of the the editorship of Alan Lomax, then head of the Recording Laboratory in the Library of Con Archive. (The editing of the sixth album was gress. The press release announcing the estab entrusted to William N. Fenton.) Each album- lishment of the Recording Laboratory claimed they really were "albums" in those days--con that sisted of five 78-rpm records pressed in black when the installation is completed the Music Division shellac (the famous clear red vinyl was to come of the Library will be able to provide for schools, libraries, and individuals, recordings of American folk later). The albums patriotically mixed ten-inch music, American poetry read and interpreted by its and twelve-inch records-shellac was being ra makers, unpublished string quartets, new American tioned in 1942. musIc and other similar matenals. Much of this ma The six albums in the series were planned to terial stands ready for use on the shelves of the Library now-records of American folk music from exhibit the main varieties of American folk many parts of the country, documents basic to the music: history and culture of America and of the world I. Anglo-American Ballads musical manuscripts of composers, ancient and mod~ II. Anglo-Ameriean Shanties, Lyric Songs, ern. Only students who are free to come to the Library Dance Tunes and Spirituals or people who can afford to have expensive copies made, now use the Library's vast collection. To the III. Afro-American Spirituals, Work Songs, great majority of citizens this material is accessible and Ballads only through the books of research students and occa IV. Afro-American Blues and Game Songs sional radio broadcasts. The new sound service in the V. Bahaman Songs, French Ballads and Library can make a great part of it available on phonograph records to the general public. Dance Tunes, Spanish Religious Songs and Game Songs VI. Songs from tbe Iroquois Longhouse. Librarian of Congress Archibald MaeLeish was Each album included a brochure with tran more eloquent in his proposal to the Carnegie Corp~ration, whose grant made possible the establIshment of the Recording Laboratory: I cannot 100 stro'ngly express to you my own convic tion that such a program would be a most important During the years 1964 to 1966 the six LPs force in the life of this country at this moment. It were remastered from the original field record seems to me that we can either educate the American ings; these remastered discs occasionally in people as to the value of their cultural heritage and cluded alternate "takes" from those used on the their national civilization, or sit back and walch the destruction and disintegration of that culture and that original 78s. The remastering project also al civilization by forces now so ruinously active in this lowed the engineers to present complete versions world. of several cuts which had before appeared only The establishment of the Recording Labora as excerpts. Consequently the transcriptions of tory made it possible for people to request the these songs in the brochures no longer accur duplication of specific sound recordings. In addi ately reflected the words on the records. This tion, the Library published recordinjls in an at was one of the several considerations which led tempt to get some of the Archive's material to to the present revision of the textual material the person who was interested in sampling its accompanying the recordings. The recordings holdIngs without having a specific item in mind themselves, though now numbered AFS I -the auditory equivalent of the library patron through 6 rather than AAFS 1 through 6 (re who just "wants a good book." As a trial balloon flecting the change of name of the issuing body for the project in 1941 the Friends of Music in from Archive of American Folk Song to Archive the Library of Congress issued an album of of Folk Song), have not been changed since two ten-inch records consisting of "Lady of Car the 1960s remastering. lisle" sung by Basil May, "Pretty Polly" sung The current republication furnishes all six by Pete Steele, "It Makes a Long Time Man Feel records with new covers and a new sleeve note, Bad"-the archetypal Library of Congress folk supplies the present historical introduction, re song title-sung by "a group of Negro convicts," numbers the notes on the selections to corre and "0 Lord, Don' 'low Me to Beat 'em," sung, spond to the numbering on the LP labels, and spoken, and cursed by Willie Williams. The revises the transcriptions to include all the text next year the Archive of Folk Song albums contained on the LP. Otherwise the brochures which are the subject of this essay appeared. read as they did when they first appeared in In 1956, at the time of their first issue, the 1942. We have even hesitated to change tran LPs were direct transfers from the 78s as issued scriptions when our ears hear something dir..: Friends of Music album was combined with that ferent than did those of the original transcriber. on the first of the Archive of Folk Song albums This is partly attributable to cowardice. Revising to make the record now known as AFS 1.1. such transcripts as those of Mrs. Ball's nonsense This allowed those who wanted to buy a long syllables on AFS 1.2, A7 ("Jennie Jenkins") or playing version of the Friends of Music album the ring-shout of AFS 1.3, A7 ("Run, Old Jere to purchase a single record, but did creatc a miah") is not a task one views with enthusiasm. few anomalies: as it is now constituted Ll con But our decision was based partly on common tains two versions of "Pretty Polly" and presents sense. After all, Alan Lomax heard most of Willie Williams and "group of convicts" under these people in person and singing many songs, the banner of "Anglo-American Ballads." while we only hear them for a single song and In 1956, at the time of their first issue, the on a record. LPs were direct transfers from the 78s as issued Three decades later it is useful to look at in 1942. At this time the records were renum these pioneering issues of recorded folk music bered: six albums numbered from I to VI con and consider the assumptions-conscious and taining records numbered from 1 to 30 became unconscious-that went into their production. AFS Ll through 1.6. The brochures which had Some of these assumptions have colored subse been prepared for the 78-rpm albums continued quent Library record issues up to the present to be used with the LPs. This caused some con day; others were not meant to apply to any fusion as the record number in the brochure but the first issues. Still, all of them played a no longer corresponded to the actual number of part in the creation of the image of the Library .the item on the record.
2 of Congress folk music record, and some Not all of the performances are by otherwise notably numbcr 3 below-played an important unknown singers and instrumentalists caught for part in its development. H~re arc some of these a brief moment by the microphone of the Li assumptions, more or less in descending order of brary of Congress. Many arc by people who cven importance: then were fairly well-known folk performers: 1. The Library of Congress recordings were Mrs. Texas Gladden, thc sally radical Aunt designed as a method of making the wealth of Molly Jackson, honey-voiced Vera Hall, har field recordings housed in the Archive of Ameri monica man Sonny Tcrry, and even Woody can Folk Song available to the public. They Guthrie. There are also less widcly known musi were-and have remained-rccordines of ma cians, from the anonymous little girls of "Ain't terial from field recordings ill the Archive. (In Gonna Ring [Rain?] No More" and the pseu 1976 the Library of Congress began a comple donymous "Lightning"-who would not give mentary series of recordings, Folk Music in John A. Lomax his real name-to such people America. editcd by Richard K. Spollswood, which as Jimmie Strothers, the gentle axe murderer drew on commcrcial recordings and field collec who is known only through his Folk Archive tions other than those in the Archive, as well as recordings. But it cannot be claimed that every an occasional irresistible Archivc field recording.) cut of L1 through LS makes articulate a voice This explains many of the questions asked about that would otherwise have remained unheard the Archive's series of folk music recordings, in save by those living within a few miles of the cluding the perennial "Why doesn't the Library singer. This is not to suggest that the carly of Cor.gress issue a jazz series as well as a Library of Congress records sacrificed authentic folk music series?" The answer: the field re ity for easy listening. Thcy are American folk cordings of the Folk Archive did not, in the music pure from the fount. Still, thc ncwcomer 1940s contain sufficient and sufficiently trench to these records should bc warned that Wadc ant jazz material to undertake such a series. As Ward, to give an example, is not the undiscov the Archive's carliest field recordings were done ered hill-dweller of the cartoons ("Hey, Paw, in the late thirties and early forties in rural here comes the man from the Library of Con areas-see number 5 below-they would not gress with that machine"). By 1942 he had have picked up much important jazz besides the already been broadcast nationwide on the Amer roots-of-thc-blues material so ably represented ican School of the Air. on L3, L4, and their successors. The Jelly Roll 3. The third assumption is the inversc of the Morton recordings, the one important set of jazz second. It has been thc policy of the Library of "field" recordings in the Archive during the Congress not to compete in its publications with early 1940s (if we can call a set of recordings commercial companies. The recordings put out made in the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Audi by the Folk Archive mirror this policy, none torium "field recordings") were commercially more clearly than the first six. The folk wisdom viable and would thus come under the interdic of the Music Division has it that in 1942 Lomax tion of number 3 below-as would, indeed, and Harold Spivacke, then chief of the Music most jazz. Division, were advised that it might be unwise 2. Since the purpose of the record series was for the Library's record series to issue any record which could profitably be released com to make the treasures of the Archive available to mcrcially. Many of the well-known "Library the general public, the choice of individual per of Congress recordings" that generations of rec formances was made to some extent on the basis ord buyers have treasured have not, in fact, been of beauty of performance rather than its use for released by the Library, but have been released folklore scholarship. These were the perform on commercial labels frol11 material recorded by ances that the Lomaxes wanted to share with the or at the Library of Congress; thus the Archivc world. has been able to get its treasurcs into circula tion withoUl competing with commercial record labels. A few highlights of commercial record ings made from material at the Library of Con gress include the Jelly Roll Morton interviews
3 on Riverside, the Bartok-Szigeti recital on Van ticularly Alan, were to spread their nets very guard, Blind Willie McTeLI on Piedmont, Aunt widely indeed.) The next two aspects, interre Molly Jackson on Roundcr, Budapest String lated, do represent the Lomax family's attitudes, Quartet broadcasts on Odyssey, and the more or attitudes widely shared among earlier folk music Icss complete works of Huddie "Leadbelly" Led collectors but increasingly challenged by" more better and Woody Guthrie on Elektra. recent collectors. Few of the performances in the Folk Ar 5. The sources of the recordings are exclu chive's collections in 1942 would have been con sively rural. sidered to have commercial value in that ycar. 6. The records are dedicated to the preserva Still, the attempt not to compete with regular tion of the old songs and styles of the folk, record companies may explain why, in a series principally interpreted by older musicians, with of records leaning heavily on black convict little attempt to document the new styles and songs, there is nothing by the Lomax's most songs that werc emerging. The next-to-Iast cut famous discovery, Leadbelly. By 1942 his re of L2, complete with Hawaiian guitar, for ex cordings had appeared on the commercial ample, is offered as a single sample of "Ameri market on more than one label. can folk music, 1942." What was not commercial in 1942 was not The view of the folksong as a rural and old, to be forever uncommercial. Several of the and therefore dying, art remains common to artists appearing on the Archive's first issues this day. In the 1940s therc was a particular recorded commercially later (Sonny Terry, of feeling that radio and the phonograph were wip L4, even shows up on the original cast album ing out our folk heritage, which was to be found of Finian's Rainbow), and one, McKinley in its most vital form where the electric power "Muddy Waters" Morganfield, who sings "Coun line had not-or had only recently-penetrated. try Blues" and "1 Be's Troubled" on L4, is At that time, a few folklorists were only begin now recognized as a major commercial artist ning to discover the folk music of the city, with a considerable discography. with its multiple ethnic strains; and several of The first three attitudes discussed have con the new-fangled styles that the Lomaxes did cerned the general philosophy of the Library not record are now respectable styles whose of Congress folk music recordings. The remain origins might well have shown up on these ing considerations apply partiCUlarly to AFS records. Ll through L5 (L6, the Indian recording, be A third of a century after their release we can ing a special case). see that the rural and old-style bias of the early 4. The recordings are predominantly south Library of Congress folk music recordings pro ern. The Lomax's collecting for the Library vided something less than the full range of was done predominantly in the South; the South American folk music. From the perspective of was thus the main source for the Library's folk the year they were released, howcver, they are collection. The first two albums, however, con an amazing document of taste, courage, and tained some material recorded in such nonsouth confidence. To have released in 1942 a record ern locations as Rhinelander, Wisconsin, and of Anglo-American ballads only two of which Visalia, California, while the sixth album was had the comforting accompaniment of a guitar recorded in New York and Ontario. So the was to invite instant rejection by the general records as they were issued proclaim their south listener, who usually likes his folk music with ern bias orily by the note "recorded in Southern the harmonies explained. The faith of Alan U.S." on L3 and U. Lomax and Harold Spivacke that the authentic The southern accent of the first Library of voice of folk music could be accepted by the Congress recordings probably reflects the ear American people is, placed in proper perspec liest experiences of the Lomax family, which tive, far more important to consider than any began in Texas and spread east through the "bias" the records might have. If today we southern states, but it also reflects the practical notc what the records omit it is partl y because neccssities of folk-music collecting: better fish they have become so much the archetypal set one section of the pond than spread your net of folk music records that one is conscious of too thin. (During their lives the Lomaxes, par their limits. or, occasionally, unconscious. (The
4 present writer grew up in New Hampshire under Apparently no answer was received, for another the impression that New Hampshire had no folk performance was substituted for the perform music, since none of it appeared on Library of ances involving the three ministers' permission. Congress records.) The substituted piece was Willie Williams sing 7. "The labourer is worthy of his hire." The ing "The New Buryin' Ground": it is therefore Library of Congress was careful to get permis hard to regret the ministers' recalcitrance. sion from all locatable performers and to pay Lomax summed up the trials of getting clear them for releasing their performances. The fee ances for the first six albums of the Archive was nominal-around ten dollars per song-but series at the end of this report: for a series of records dedicated to commercial This matter of locating a hundred old folk singers all unacceptability (number 3 above) it was a the way from Cat Island 10 the Colorado bulles and pledge of faith to the artists whose work had back has been an epic chase. It is an experience that I have enjoyed but that I am not anxiolls to repeat been used. The efforts to locate singers were soon. heroic; but sometimes even the U.S. govern If Lomax was not anxious to repeat the ex ment had to give up. A 1942 Alan Lomax pericncc soon, the Folk Archive was fully pre memo, "Report on Clearances," tells many stories of his attempts to secure clearances, in pared to keep up its searches: the second set of cluding this one about the Bahamas records: six albums, under the general editorship of B. A. Botkin, appeared one year after the initial One of the singers on this record lives on the remote six. Eventually, the rigorous seeking of permis Cat Island of the Bahamas chain. She was written sions became less exhaustive ~nd exhausting. on April 17, 1942. and so far no reply has been ob Payments are held in escrow for performers who tained; perhaps none ever will. The only other Ba haman singer who has been located was found because appear at new locations after their performances the assau postmaster published a notice in the news are released. paper announcing that he had a leiter for him. There The first six albums issucd by the Archivc of is no newspaper within 500 miles of Cat Island. _ American Folk Song have become documents Somc people felt that ten dollars was not almost as much as the music they sought to pre enough. Again, from the "Report on Clear serve. They are still as capable as ever of giving ances" : pleasure, instruction, and sustenance to the This party asked for a fifteen per-cent royalty; and so listener who comes to them for the music they we have dropped the side, substituting an even beller contain. By now, however, they also serve as one by a performer who has been very cooperative in the past. A leller has gone to this performer, and a witness to the state of folk-music collection in reply should be expected wilhin a vcry few days. the 1930s-both as to the sound quality of thc If the first performer meant 15 percent of the records produced and the altitudes toward col profits by his request for a "fiftcen per-cent lecting of the gatherers-and to the manner in royalty,?' he would have donc belter to stick which this material was presented to the gen with the ten dollars. But at least one performer eral public in the I940s. was pleased with his payment. In a recent in Few people who carc for folk music would tcrview Muddy Waters recalled, "the Library suggest that these six albums be retired for ob of Congress sent me $10.00 a side and that solescence-though we do get abou t three let $20.00 went a long way, as far as a hundred ters a year suggesting that if we cannot issue dollars goes today" (Unicorn Times, April 1978, records with better audio quality than these we p. 40). Sometimes denominational problems should get out of the business, and an occasional may have hindered the obtaining of permission: letter suggesting that anyone who would put These two items were recorded with (he collaboration out a record entitled [fill in title of any onc of of three Negro ministers. After a month of corres the albums] without including an example of pondence, I discovered that it was necessary for all [fill in any currently fashionable folk-derived three 10 be consulted on the matter of the release style] is guilty of deceiving the pUblic. There of these two items. On May 8. 1942, I wrote ;111 three have been suggestions, however, that we revise again. explaining the situation; so far I have received no reply. I shaH wire again today for a definite yes the printed material accompanying these rec or no answer. ords, either to bring it up to the current stand:
5 ards of ethnomusicological wntmg or to bring it in line with current raJ:iaI attitudes. Against this proposal is the fact that most of the annota tions on these records were made by the people who pointed the microphone at the singers and said "sing." This has seemed more germane to our purposes than folkloric or sociological up to-dateness-what is up-to-date in the 1970s may be passe in the 1990s, but AAFS 1 through 6 will be 1933 through 1942 forever. So we have added this historical note and reproduced the original annotations substantially as they were written in 1942. They are still good read ing; by now they are history as well.
6 AI-THE HOUSE CARPE TER. 4. She went 'n' picked up her sweet little babe Sung by Mrs. Texas Gladden at Salem, And kisscd it one, two, three, Virginia, 1941. Recorded by Alan and Saying, "Stay at home with your papa dear, Elizabeth Lomax. And keep him good company." At the time the first British settlers came to 5. She went and dressed in her very best, the United States, the singing ot' old-time ballads As everyone could see. was evidently still very common in Great Brit She glistened and glittered and proudly she by ain. This is indicated the survival of more walked than a hundred of the so-called classic popular The streets on the banks of the sea. ballads in the folk tradition of the United States along with scores of ballads of other types. 6. They hadn't been sailing but aboul three These ballads took on renewed importance in wecks the wilderness of the thirteen colonies where I'm sure it was not four- the people were completely dependent for Till this young lady began to weep, amusement on the n:Sourccs of their memories And her weeping never ceased any more. and imaginations; and they are still known in 7. "Arc you mourning for your house carpenter? every pan of the country, although most com Are you mourning for your store?" monly in isolated rural areas. Not only wefe '"No. I'm mourning for my sweet little babe these ballads an impurtant form of recreation That I never will see ;my more." for the pioneers, but they gave a sense of history and they expressed certain deep-running pat 8. They hadn't been sailing but about four terns of idea (lnd feeling, important to the struc wccks ture of the American community. I'm sure it was not morc- The ballad of "The House Carpenter" (some Till the ship sprang a leak from the bottom of times called "The Daemon Lover") is one of the sea, the most widely distributed British ballads in And it sank to rise no more. this country. With other ballads of its kind, it has furnishl'd amusement for lovers, for family groups and for children in every part of Our A2-THE FARMER'S CURST WIFE. land. Sung by Horton· Barker at Chilhowie, Vir Child No. 243. For a note giving other ver ginia, 1939. Recorded by Herbert Hal sions of this ballad, sec pages 79 fT., of H. M. pert. Belden, Hallads and Songs Collected by tile One of the best known of all the British bal Mi.\'souri Folk-Lore Suciety, University of Mis lads found in the United States. this tale of a souri Studies, xv, no. I, 1940. scolding wife evidences its popularity by the number of melodies and the number of non I. "Well met, well met, you old true-love' sense refrClins it has acquired in its long travels Well met, well met!" said she [i.e., he]. across the centuries. It still delights any audience ''I've just returned frolll the seashore sca, with its broadly comic version of the Orpheus From the land where the grass grows green. legend. I was told by a mountain singer that husbands actually have used it to silence their 2. "Well, I could havc married a king's daughter shrewish wives; the superstitious women believed there, that what happened to One woman might well And she would have married me; happen to anolher. The story is always the But I refused the golden crown same. The devil appears to a farmer in his All for the sake of thee. field; the farmer gives him his scolding wife; the 3. "11' you'll forsake your house carpenter, devil carries her ofT to hell where she proceeds And comc and go with me, to murder as many of Satan's imps as come I'll take you where the grass grows green, within her reach; Satan, realizing that the old To the lands on the banks of the sea." woman is "about to clean out Hell," carries her
7 back to her husband, proving the old folk adage I I. She found the old man sick in the bed, that "nothing is meaner than a mean woman." And upped with the butterstick and paddled Child No. 278. For reference material on this his head. ballad see pages 94 If. of Belden, Ballads and Sing heigh, etc. Songs. 12. The old woman went whistlin' over the hill. I. There was an old man at the foot of the hill, "The Devil wouldn't have me, so ] wonder If he ain't moved away he's livin' there still. who will?" Sing heigh, diddle-eye, diddle-eye, fie! Sing heigh, etc. Diddle-eye, diddle-eye, day! 13. This is what a woman can do: 2. He hitched up his horse and he went out to She can outdo the Devil and her old man, plow, too. But how to get around he didn't know how. Sing heigh, etc. Sing heigh, etc. 14. There's one advantage women have over 3. The Devil came to his house one day, men: Says, "One of your family I'm a-gonna take They can go to Hell and come back again. away." Sing heigh, etc. Sing heigh, etc.
4. "Take her on, take her on, with the joy of A3-THE GYPSY DAVY. my heart; Sung with guitar by Woody Guthrie of I hope by gollies you'll never part!" Okemah, Oklahoma. Recorded in Sing heigh, etc. Washington, D.C., 1940, by Alan Lo S. The Devil put her in a sack, max. And the old man says, "Don't you bring her Reed Smith says that one of the best Amer back." ican versions of this romantic ballad was col Sing heigh, etc. lected in Ohio from a Russian Jew who learned it in Salt Lake City, Utah, from the Mormons. 6. When the Devil got her to the forks of the The tale has had an enormous appeal for the road, common people, since it depicts the defeat of He says, "Old lady. you're a terrible load." the aristocrat; for women it has mennt romantic Sing heigh, etc. escape from the slavery of frontier marriage. The original ballad comes out of seventeenth 7. When the Devil got her to the gates of Hell, century England where it was called "Johnny He says, "Punch up the fire, we want to Fa" or "The Raggle Taggle Gypsies." Tn Amer scorch her well." ica in the early part of the nineteenth century it Sing heigh, etc. was sufficiently well known to everyone to be 8. In come a little devil a-draggin' a chain; parodied on the stage. Woody Guthrie, our best She upped with the hatchet, and split out contemporary ballad composer, has edited this his brains. version to fit his Oklahoma upbringing. The Sing heigh, etc. "milk white steed" of the earlier ballad has be come the "buckskin horse"; the "lily white 9. Another little devil went climbin' the wall, gloves" have turned "buckskin," too. Then An' says. "Take her back, Daddy, she's a Woody has put in a stanza of his own, number murdcrin' liS all." 3, which makes the story over into a western Sing heigh, etc. ballad, "big guitar" and all. The melody has 10. The old man was a-pcepin' out of the crack, been completely Americanized, and the guitar And saw the old Devil come <.l-waggin' her accompaniment is a recent development. Woody, back. learned his guitar style from listening to records Sing heigh, etc. of the famous Carter family of "hill-billy" fame.
8 Child No. 200. For a note on other versions (Aside) How ya, Sue? Hello, Sue.' of this ballad see pages 73 ff. of Belden, Ballads anti Songs. 9. "No, I won't take off my buckskin gloves, Made of Spanish leather; I'll go my way from day to day, i. It was late last night when my lord come And sing with the Gypsy Davy, home, 'N' sing with the Gypsy Dave." Inquirin' 'bout his lady.
'N' the only answer he received: I The singer saw his lillIe daughter in the siudio and "She's gone with the Gypsy Davy, spoke to her. Gone with the Gypsy Dave."
2. "Go saddle for me my buckskin horse A4-BARBARA ALLEN. And a hundred-dollar saddle. Sung by Rebecca Tarwater 01 Rockwood, Point out to me their wagon tracks, Tennessee. Recorded in Washington, And after them I'll travel, D.C., 1936, by Charles Seeger. After them I'll ride." For two hundred years "Barbara Allen" has 3. Well, he had not rode till the midnight moon been the best loved of all English ballads. It Till he saw the campfire gleamin', encompasses both of the ideas which are com And he heard the gypsy's big guitar, monest in British and American ballads of love, And the voice of the lady singin' i.e., that love leads to death, and that a proud The song of the Gypsy Dave. lover always destroys himself and his loved one. The air of the ballad always seems fresh 4. "Well, have you forsaken your house and and tender, no matter how often one hears it, home? and the verses paint a picture that has all the Have you forsaken your baby? soft cruelty of spring. Only last summer a Have you forsaken your husband dear Georgia mountain farmer to!d me, "Every time To go with the Gypsy Davy, I hear 'Barbara Allen' it makes the hair rise on And sing with the Gypsy Dave?" my head." Rebecca Tarwater, the singer, although she 5. "Yes, ['ve forsaken my house and home has had some voice training, gives us the melody To go with the Gypsy Davy, And I'll forsake my husband dear as it was sung to her by her mother. The text is extremely short-six stanzas in place of the But not my blue-eyed baby, usual ten to fifteen. Not my blue-eyed babe." Child No. 84. For reference material on this 6. She laughed to leave her husband dear, ballad see pages 60 ff. of Belden, Ballads and And her butlers and her ladies, Songs. But the tears come a-trickelin' down her cheeks I. 'Twas in the lovely month of May, When she thought about her blue-eyed baby, The flowers all were bloomin'; And thought of her blue-eyed babe. Sweet William on his death-bed lay For the love of Barbry Allen. 7. "Take off, take off your buckskin boots, Made of Spanish leather, 2. He sent his servant to her door, And give to me your lily-white hand, He sent him to her dwellin': 'N' we'll go back home together, "My master's sick and he calls for you, Go back home again. If your name be Harbry Allen." 8. "Take off, take off your buckskin gloves, 3. Then slowlye, slowlye, got she up, Made of Spanish leather, And to his bedside goin': And give to me your lily-white hand, "My master's sick and he called for you, 'N' we'll go back home together, II your name be Barbry Allen." , Go back home again."
9 4. He turned his pale face to the wall, I. "Pretty Polly, pretty Polly, come go 'long And bursted out a-eryin': with me, "Adieu, adieu to all below, Pretty Polly, pretty Polly, come go 'long with And adieu to Barbry Allen!" me, Before we git married, some pleasure to see." 5. Sweet William died on a Saturday night, And Harbry died a Sunday. 2. She got up behind him and away they did go, Their parents died for the love of the two; She got up behind him and away they did go, They was buried on a Easter Monday. Over the hills to the valley so low. 6. A white rose grew on William's grave, 3. They went up a little f"rther and what did A red rose grew on Barbry's; they spy? They twined and they twined in a true-lover's They went up a little farther and what did knot, they spy? A-warnin' young people to marry. A new-dug grave and a spade lying by. "The singer mistakenly repeats lhese lines from Stanza 4. He stobbed her to the heart. her heart blood 2. They usually arc sung: "No better. no better, you it did now, will ever be, For you can'l have Barbry Allen."' He stobbed her to the heart, her heart blood it did flow, And into the grave pretty Polly did go. AS-PRETIY POLLY. Sung with guitar hy E. C. Ball at Rugby, 5. He threw somethin' over her and turned to Virgiuia, 1941. Recorded by Alan and go home, Elizaheth Lomax. He threw somcthin' over her and turned to There is a general belief among certain Amer go home, ican folklorists that ballads generally grow Leaving nothing behind him but the girl left feeble in .the process of communal transmission to mJurn. and fe-creation. "Pretty Polly" is one of the many examples one could cite in refutation of 6. Gentlemen and ladies, I'll bid you farewell, Gentlemen and ladies, I'll bid you farewell, this generality, for the broadside ballad from which it is probably derived ("The Wexford For killin' pretty Polly will send my soul to Murder") is as clumsy and dull and unpalatable Hell. a piece as the poets of Grub Street ever penned. In the mountains of the South all the circum A6-THE RICH OLD FARMER. stantial trappings of the original ballad have Suug by Mrs. Pearl Borusky at Antigo, been cut
10 latter theme has been dominant. There are many My mind being bent .on rambling. versions of this tale in the repertories of western Th is wide world to see o'er- singers, and one somehow has the impression I left my dear old parenls, that the male protagonist feels rather sorrier Perhaps to see no morc. for himself than for losing his true love to an other man. The ballad is an adaptation of an eighleenth A7-THE DEVIL'S NINE QUESTIONS, century British broadside piece, known as "The A8-0LD KIMBALL. Girl I Left Behind Me." The singer came orig Sung by Mrs, Texas Gladden :11 Salem, inally from Kentuckv. Virginia, 1941. Recorded by Alan and For a note giving other versions of this ballad, Elizabeth Lomax through the courtesy see pages 198 ff. of Belden, Ballads al/{I Songs. of Miss Alfreda Peel. Pioneers everywhere have the advantage of I. There was a rich old farmer a fresh start. They may cherish their cultural Lived in the country nigh. past. revise it, or reject it. Part of their heritage He had an only daughter of song is left aside and forgotten. Other songs On whom I east my eye. get a fresh start, just as the people themselves She was so tall and slender. do, while still others are recast to fit the needs So delicate and so fair; of a new environment. In remOlding their old No other girl in the country songs or making new ones, the people choose With her I could compare. the handiest and hardiest material availablc. These two songs provide a contrast which aptly 2. I asked her if it made any difference illustrates these points. If I crossed over the plains. The first song is ~in ancient riddling ballad, She said it made no difference sung with great purity of style, the text being in If I'd come back again. a fine !;tate of preservation; it is undoubtcdly She promised she'd be true to me one of the most ancient ballads in the entire Until death's parting time; British ballad tradition. It was discovered far So we kissed, shook hands, and parted, back in the Virginia mountains in the possession And I left my girl behind. of a mountain woman whose ideas and langunge 3. Straightway to old Missouri, were colored by her heritage from Elizabethan To Pikesville I did go, England. Where work and money were plentiful The second song reprcsent'S a type of cuhural And the whiskey it did flow, intermingling out of which has come much of Where work and money was plentiful what is distinctive and beautiful in the cultures And the girls all treated me kind; of both Americas. When Negroes and whites en But the girl I left behind me countered each other in the American wilderness Was always on my mind. and worked side by side, they had 10 share ideas, no matter what barriers of prejudice may have 4. One day while I was out walking existed. This song is the result of such a process Down by the public square, of pioneer swapping. The mail-boat had arrived lts point of origin is a long English broad And the postman met me there. side ballad about a famous racehorse named He handed me a lelter Skew Bald. That ballad must have been very Which gave me to understand popular among the whitcs at one time, because That the girl I left behind me collectors have found a cgro work song ver Was married to another man. sion of il in every pari of the Soulh. This work 5. I advanced a few steps forward, song, in which the horsc's name has become Full knowing these words to be true. StewbalJ, might be said to be one of Ihe two or My mind being bent on rambling, Ihree besl known of Negro work songs. Mrs. I didn't know what to do,
11 Gladden's version, in which the hero horse ap AS-OLD KIMBALL pears as Old Kimball, was learned as a Negro work song: her pause after each of the short 1. Old Kimball lines allows time for a pick to be driven home. Was a gray nag, Yet of the scores of versions 1 have recorded, Old Nellie Mrs. Gladden's has much the loveliest air. Was a brown; For other versions of A7 (Child No.1), see Old Kimball Arthur Kyle Davis, Jr., Traditional Ballads of Beat Old Nellie Virginia (Harvard University Press, 1929). For On the very references and background material on AS, see First go-round. pages 61 ft. of Dorothy Scarborough, On the CHORUS: Trail of Negro Folk-Songs (Harvard University Press, 1925); also, John A. and Alan Lomax, And I see, American Ballads and Folk Songs, (New York: And T sec, Macmillan Company, 1934). And [ see on the fourth day A7 THE DEVIL'S NINE QUESTIONS Of July. I. "Oh, you must answer'my questions nine, 2. His bridle Sing ninety-nine and ninety, Made of silver, Or you're not God's, you're one of mine, His saddle And you arc the weaver's bonny. Made of gold; And the value 2. "What is whiter than the milk? Of his harness Sing ninety-nine and ninety, It has never And what is softer than the silk? Yet been told. And you are the weaver's bonny." CHORUS 3. "Snow is whiter than the milk, Sing ninety-nine and ninety, 3. ['II get up And down is softer than t'he silk, In my buggy And f am the weaver's bonny." With my lines In my hand. 4. "0 what is higher than a tree? "Good morning, And what is deeper than the sea?" Young lady." 5. "Heaven's higher than a tree, "Good morning, And Hell is deeper than the sea." Young man." 6. "What is louder than a horn? 4. I often And what is sharper than a thorn?" Have wondered What makes women 7. "Thunder's louder than a horn, Love men, And death is sharper than a thorn." Then looked baek 8. "What's more innocent than a lamb? And wondered And what is meaner than womankind?" What makes men Love them. 9. "A babe's more innocent than a lamb, And the devil is meaner than womankind." CHORUS 10. "0 you have answered my questions nine, And you arc God's, you're none of minc."
12 5. They'll cause you 4. "I want three young ladies to bear up my Hard labor coffin, They'll cause you I want four young ladies to carry me on; Downfall And each of them carry a bunch of wild roses They'll cause you To lay on my coffin as I pass along." Hard labor 5. One morning, one morning, one morning in All behind the May Old jail wall. I spied this young lady all wrapped in white CHORUS linen, All wrapped in while linen and cold as the clay. A9-0NE MORNING IN MAY. Sung by Mrs. Texas Gladden at Salem, Virginia, 1941. Recorded by Alan and BI-THE LITTLE BROWN BULLS. Elizabeth Lomax. Sung by Emery DeNoyer at Rhineland,er, The Irish ballad of the bacchanalian funeral Wisconsin, 1941. Recorded by Charles of the unfortunate soldier who died from the Draves. effects of his riotous life has been a popular, if The American lumber industry began in the censored, theme among American singers. Out north woods of Maine, followed the spruce and of it the cowboys developed "The Cowboy's pine forests across the northern part of the Lament" and the Negroes made "St. James' United States into Michigan, Wisconsin, Min Infirmary Blues." Eastern singers in New Eng nesota and, finally, into the great sky-reaching land and the South, however, for reasons of forests of the Northwest. It was a wasteful in their own have changed the sex of the central dustry, stripping the land, destroying millions of character and moralize about an unfortunate dollars of natural resources as it produced mil mahlen. The cause for her demise usually re lions of feet of timber-lumber for an expanding mains obscure, the theme being the general one American economy. The man who did the work of "sin is death." in the woods was a heroic pioneer type-the For further material on this ballad see pages old-time lumberjack, the shanly boy. His dress, 392 ff. of Belden, Ballads and Songs. his habits, his ballads, and his profanity were all ·,qually distinctive. He spent his winters 1. "When I was a young girl, I used to see isolated in the forest, chopping down the trees pleasure, and hauling them on sleds to the edge of the When I was a young girl, I used to drink ale; frozen rivers. When the spring thaw came, the Out of a alehouse and into a jailhouse, woods' crew sent their winter's accumulation of Right out of a barroom and down to my logs down the foaming rivers to the sawmill. grave. The lumberjacks were then paid off and often spent their winter's pay in a huge spree of drink 1. "Come, papa, come, mama, and sit you down ing and carousing. by me, The men, living together all winter in the Come sit you down by me and pity my case; same cabin far from towns and outside contacts, My poor head is aching, my sad heart is were dependent on themselves for amusement. breaking, Like other men in the same situation, they made My body's salivated and I'm bound to die. ballads and told stories about their work ancl 3. "Oh, send for the preacher to come and pray their way of life. The lumberjack ballads, tragic for me, or comic, arc always literal and factual. They And send for the doctor to heal up my were honest workmen, and their highest praise wounds; for a song was "that song is as true as steel." My poor head is aching, my sad heart is Most of their ballads were constructed along breaking, My body's salivated and Hell is my doom.
13 the lines and with the melodies of the eighteenth 6. With a 'hoop and a yell came McCluskey in and nineteenth-century British broadside bal view lads. "The Little Brown Bulls" tells the story As with his big spotted steers, the pets of of a contest between two teams of oxen in haul the crew, ing (skidding) logs out of the woods to the He says, "Chew your cud, boys, and keep riverbank. The singer's interest is in the slory, your mouth full, not the melody. His style is, I believe, fairly For we easilyc can bellt them, the little representative of the way the old-time lumber brown bulls." jacks liked to sing. 7. Then along came Bold Gordon with his pipe For further material on this ballad, sec pages in his jaw~ 92 IT. of E. C. Beck, SOl/gs 01 the Michigal/ To his little brown bulls he hollers, "Whoa, Lumberiacks (University of Michigan Press, haw!" 1941 ). He says, "Chew your cud, boys, you'd need never fear. 1. Not a thing on the river McCluskey did fear For we will not be beat by the big spotted As he swung his gored stick o'er his big steers." spotted steers; They were round, plump, and handsome, 8. Says McCluskey to Sandy, "We'll take oft· girdin' eight foot and three; their skins, Said McCluskcy, the Scotchman. "They'rc We'll dig them a hole and we'll tumble them the laddies for mc." in. We'll mix up a dish and we'll feed it to 2. Then along came Bold Gordon,:t whose them hot, skidding was full. We will learn them damn Yankees to face As he hollercd "Whoa, hush'" to his little the bold Scot." brown bulls, Short-legged and shaggy, girdin' six foot and 9. After supper was over McCluskey appeared nine; With a bclt ready made for his big spotted "Too light," said McCluskey, "to handle steers; our pine. To make it he tOfe up his best mackinaw, He was bound to conduct it according to 3. "For it's three to the thousand our contract law. doth call; Our skidding is good and aliI' timber is taiL" 10. When up stepped the scaler saying, "Hold McCluskey he swore that he'd make the day yc a while, full, Your big spotted steers are behind just onc And he'd skid three to one of the little mile; brown bulls. You skidded one hundred and ten and no more 4. "0 no," says Bold Gordon, "that you Whilst Bold Gordon ha' beat you by ten cannot do, and a score." Although your big steers arc the pets of the crew. I I. All the boys then all laughed and Mc I tell you, McCluskey, you will have your Cluskey did swear, hands fu II As he tore out by hands full his long yellow When you skid one more log than my little hair. brown bulls." He says to Bold Gordon, "My dollars J'II pull 5. So the day was appointcd and soon did And you take the belt for your little brown draw night.' bulls." For twcnly-flvl: dollars their fortune to try, All eager and anxious nexl morning was found, The judge and the scaler appeared on the ground.
14 12. 0 it's here's to Bold Gordon and Sandberry 2. We crossed the Missouri and joined a large John, train, For the biggest day's work on the river is Which carried us over mountains, through done. valleys and plain~ ~ It's fill up your glass, boys, and fill them And orten of a even in!!. a-hulltin' wc'd go up full To shoot the neet antelope and the wild And we'lI drink to the health of the little buffalo. brown bulls. 3. Vvc heard of Sioux Indians all out on the =Surely Ihal is Bull Gordon? plains, I igh. A-killing poor drivers and burning thl..'ir trains, A-killing poor drivers with arrows and bows: B2-Hm SIOUX I 'DiANS. \Vhcn captured by Indians no mercy they'd Sung b)' Alex Moore at Austin, Texas, show. 1940. Recorded by John A. and Bess Lomax. 4. We travelled three weeks till we come to the The cowboys inherited the folk song stocks Platle, of both the onh and the South, adapting them A-pitching our tents at tht,; head uf the nat~ and blending them in a new environment to Wc spread down our blankeLs on a !!.rccn produce the songs that arc peculiarly western. shady ground ~ They sang 011 horseback, usually about their Where the mules and the horses wcre !!razing work, its hardships, accidents and pleasures. around...... They were never, according to their own testi 5. \Vhile wc're taking our refreshment we mony, very sweet singers; any sort of a voice hyeard" a loud yell: would do to quiet callIe or to amuse a bunch of The 'hoop of Sioux Indians come up from Lhe bored and weary men after 1110nths on the trail. drill:; Alex Moore's performance of "The Sioux In Wc sprang to our rilles with a !lash in each dians" with its pauses, its irregularities and its eyc, strident nasality can be considered fairly typical And says our bravc leader, "Boys, we'll lighl o[ their singing. In the sententious style of the till we die." 18th century broadside, it tells the story of an attack by the Sioux Indians on an emigrant 6. They made a bold dash and they COIll~ ncar train crossing the plains to the West. Never our train; theless the ballad effectively evokes the tough The arrows fell around tiS like showers of and heroic charactL'T or the white adventurers rain, who sallied out across the vast desert of the But with our long rillcs wc kd 'em hot lead plains in their clumsy, white-covered wagons. Till a many a br<.!vc warrior around us lie Alex Moort,; has retired from cowpunching and dead. is now riding herd 011 an icc-cream wagon in 7. We shot the bold chief at the head of their Austin, Texas. He knows a hundred or more band; folk songs. all the way from "Lord Randall" to H~ died likc a warrior with a bow in his hand. "The Battleship Maine." And whcn they saw the brave chief lie dead For a version of this among other cowboy in his gore, songs, sec pages 344 ff. of John A. and Alan They 'hooped and they yelled and we saw Lomax, Cowboy Song.\" and Otllu Frontier Bal them no marc. lad., ( ew York: Macmillan Company, 1938).
I. I'll sing you a song and it'll bc a sad one Of our trials and our trouble and how they begun. We left our dear kindred. our friends and our home, And we crossed the wide districts and mountains to roam.
15 8. In our little band there were just twenty-four, most coolness, and pomtmg his sword towards And of the Sioux Indians five hundred or the lions, they did not dare to attack him. Hav more. ing recovered the glove, he returned to his mis We fought them with courage, we spoke not tress and gave it to her. She and all who were a word~ present accounted this well done; but it is re The 'hoop of Sioux Indians was all could be lated that M. de Lorge scornfully turned his back heard. upon her, because of the way she had sought to make a pastime of him and of his valour. It 9. We hooked up our horses, we started our is even said that he tossed the glove in her face; train: for that he would rather a hundred times she Three more bloody battles, this trip on the ordered him to attack a battalion of infanry-a plain. thing that he well understood-than fight wild And in our last battle three of the brave boys beasts, a combat out of which but little glory fell, was to be gained." , And we left them to rest in the green shady This incident, recounted as a fact by Bran drill.' tome in his Memoires de Messire Pierre de :> Heard. Bourdeille, Seigneur de Bran/ome (1666), was • Dell. used by Schiller for his poem Der Handschuh o Ibid. and by Robert Browning for The Glove; but in all three the theme is of the brave knight who despises the careless conceit of the lady who has B3-THE LADY OF CARLISLE (Ballad). thrust him into needless danger. Sung with guitar by Basil May at Salyers OUf singer's version, however, rollows the ville, Keutucky, 1937. Recorded by pattern of the folk as opposed to the literary tra Alan and Elizabeth Lomax. dition. In the folk ballad the lover straightfor The traditional ballad of our southern moun wardly proves his devotion by braving the lions tains was sung, until fairly recently, without for his lady's glove and immediately receives accompaniment.s This song, and the one follow his reward. As Mr. May's version has it: ing, illustrate how mountain ballad airs have been adapted to two accompanying instruments, She threw herself upon his bosom the banjo and guitar. The guitar accompaniment Saying, "Here is the prize that you have won.." of The Lady of Carlisle is modern; the antiquity of its theme is revealed in the following account: This folk ballad is apparently derived from "I have heard the story told, of the court of an eighteenth-century broadside entitled, The olden times, of one of the ladies of the court, Distressed Lady, or A Trial of True Love. In who was mistress of the late M. de Lorge Five Parts. The trial in five parts lasts for fifty five verses and it describes the condition of the (Fran~ois de Montgommery), a man who, in two suitors as follows: his youth, was one of the bravest and most re nowned infantry captains of his day. Many One brought a captain's commission, stories had been told her about his great bravery, Under the brave Colonel Carr, and onc day, when King Fran~ois ler, sur The other was a first lieutenant rounded by his court, was amusing himself by In the Tyger man of war." watching a lion fight, she, to prove the truth of the stories she had heard, dropped one of her A later British version makes them brothers gloves into the lion's den, at a moment when and transforms the Lieutenant into a naval the beasts were greatly enraged. She then officer: begged M. de Lorge to fetch it for her, if he The oldest brother he was a captain, really loved her as much as he said. He, without on board with the honored Captain Ker; betraying any astonishment, wrapped his cape The youngest brother he was a lieutenant, round his arm and, sword in hand, strode with on board the Tyger-Man-of-War." confident air towards the lions. In this, fortune favoured him; for, bearing himself with the ut
16 A Kentucky version, collected in 1911, loses There she stopped and there she halted, the rhymc and the Tyger, names the man of These two soldiers stood gazing around, war after the Colonel: And in the space of a half an hour One he was a bold lieutenant This young lady lies speechless on the grnund. A man of honor and of high degrce; The other was a brave sea-captain, And when she did recover, Threw her fan down in the lion's den, Belonging to a ship called Kamel Call." Saying, "Which of you to gain a lady The following version of The Lady of Carlisle Will return my fan again?" was recorded by Basil May, of Salyersville, Then up stepped this brave lieutenant, Kentucky, a young man in his twenties, and the Raised his voice both loud and elear, style of performance represents a contemporary "I know 1 am a dear lover of women development. The guitar has invaded the moun But I will not give my life for love." tains in the last twenty years and has become the dominant instrument. The tonic, dominant, sub Then up stepped this brave sea captain, dominant chord pattern of rudimentary guitar Raised his voice both loud and high, playing has strongly affected the old melodies, "1 know I am a dear lover of women, forcing their conformity to the conventional ma 1 will return her fan or die." jor-minor patterns; the strict two-fOUf and Lhree four rhythms of the accompanimcnts sometimes Down in the lion's den he boldly entered, distort a ballad's cavalier form. Both these ef Lions being both wild and fierce; fects are evident in The Lady of Carlisle. Never He marched around and in among them, theless, native folk styles of guitar playing and Safely returned her fan again. ballad singing have developed out of this appar And when she saw her true lover coming, ent conflict; these styles, lumped uncritically un Seeing no harm had been done to him, der the invidious term hill-billy, are contributing She threw herself against his bosom greatly to our present-day folk music. Saying, "Here is the prize that you have won."
~ Th: body of this discussion is derived from H. G. Down in Carlisle there lived a lady, Shearin, "The Glove and the Liol/s in Kentucky Folk Being most beautiful and gay; Song," pp. J 13-14; and G. L. Kittredge, "The Ballad She was determined to live a lady, of The Dell of Lions," Modern Language Note.\", No man on earth could her betray, XXVI: 167-69. U From Cecil Sharp's Folk Songs tram SomUSt", 3rd Unless it was a man of honor, ser. (London, 1906), pp. 71·72. Man of honor and high degree; lu Kittredge, ''The Ballad," p. 168. lL Ibid. Then up rose two loving soldiers, ': Shearin, "The Glol'c," p. 114. This fair lady for to see; One being a brave lieutenant, Brave lieutenant and a man of war, B4-PRETIY POLLY (Ballad), The other being a brave sea-captain, Sung with five-string banjo by Pete Steele Captain on the ship that was Kong Kong Kar. at Hamilton, Ohio, 1938. Recorded by Alan and Elizabeth Lomax. Up spoke this fair young lady, During the eighteenth century Pretty Polly Saying, "I can't be but one man's bride; was by all odds the most popular name for the You two come back tomorrow morning English ballad heroine. Pretty Polly Oliver And on this case we will decide." dressed herself in soldier's clothes to follow her She ordered her a span of horses true love to the wars. Pretty Polly, the king's Span of horses at her command, daughter, hurled her false lover over a cliff into Down the road these three did travel the sea when he sought to rob and murder her. Till they come to a lion's den. Most often, however, Pretty Polly was a maiden betrayed and then heartlessly murdered by her lover; and such is the story of the young lady with whom our Kentucky mountain ballad singer
17 is concerned. Ballad scholars point out that the First listen to Pete Steele as he adapts the American "Pretty Polly" is derived from an modal melody of Pref1y j.Jolly to lhe raclllg English broadside ballad of "The Gosport Trag tempo of his banjo. This performance represenls edy" whercin a sailor stabs his true love, nees a period in southern white folksong \vhich began on shipboard to be gruesomely confronted by after the Civil War when the Negro banjo be her ghost. In one American version poor Wil came widely pOpUI:lf among the rural whiles in liam, otherwise known as "the perjured ship's the South. The Negroes and the blackface imi carpenter," sank to lhe bottom and paid his tators had used it to accompany fast-stepping debt to the devil. Ordinarily, however, the hoedowns and reels, He threw some dirt o'er her and turned to go home. He thrcw ~oml...' dirt ()' er hel :lnd lurned to go home, HI...· Ihrew soml...' dirt o'er Ilel" ;lI1d turncd 10 ~0 home. Left nothin~ hdlind [hUll the birds In mourn. 18 rhythm was possible, he sang simple, highly 'If you don' sing:, you sho' git worried.' 1:1 rhythmic songs. and every axe. pick, or hoc fell This recorel was cut in the woodyard of an on the same beat. When he picked COlton or did Arkansas prison farm where a dozen men lifted some other form of work in which it was not their axt.::s and brought lhem down together. The possible to adhere to a regular rhythm, his swift tempo of thL' song indicates that it is a songs rose anu fell with rhe free and swinging "double-cu''" aXL' snng: that is, two groups al movement of his breathing. The words of these ternatt.:: strokes of the axe on the log. The tn: songs were not designed for the cal' of the Lord, menelous life-giving energy of the group joined nor for the e;lr of the white boss. In them the ill comlllunal labor bursts up through thc bitter Negro was likely to speak his free and open and somber lines of the song. Such songs arc a mind. part of the Afro-Amcric 19 It makes a long time man feel bad, The country Negro worker lightens the tedium It makes a long time man feel bad, of his labor by these musical cries: a plowman, An' it's the worst old feelin' turning sandy furrows in the long cotton rows That J ever had, of a lonely swamp field; the mule skinner, driv When I can't, oh can't-3 get a letter, ing his team, with trace chains clanking, up and Oh Lawdy, from home. down in the dust of a levee bank; a roustabout, shouting the beat for the feet of his companions My uncle, he won't write to po' me, as, like an endless chain, they stagger under a My uncle, he won't write to po' me, load up the gangplank, or, in double-time hurry He won't write me no letter, down on the other side. The melodies are so He won't send me no word, free that it is impossible to give an adequate It makes a long, oh long-a time man, picture of them even by transcribing entire songs Oh Lawdy, feel bad. in musical notation. ]n mood they run the gamut My aunty, she won't write to po' me, of the worker's emotional life-his loves and My aunty. she won't write to po' me, sorrows, his hope and despair, his weariness, his She won't write me no letter, resentment. 1;> She won't send me no word, Willie Williams of Richmond, Virginia, stood It makes a long oh long-a time man, before the microphone in a bare room to record Oh Lawdy, feel bad. "0 Lawd, they don't 'low me to beat 'em." We asked him to sing it just as he would out on It makes a long time man feel bad, the job. He closed his eyes, and, as he sang, It makes a long time man feel bad, he shouted at the two mules, Rhoady and Demp An' it's the worst old feelin' sey, imitating the popping of the Whip, until the That I ever had, whole work scene was suggested in sound. The When you can't, oh can't-a get a letter, words reflect a chain gang atmosphere, in the Oh Lawdy, from home. reference to the captain and his pistol and in I" From "Our Singing Country," John A. and Alan the bilter remark about the way things had gone Lomax. at home in his absence-"f don't need no tellin', I_I This also sounds like Doclor Jones. already know." The final stanza is pervaded with the feeling of the heroic common to all laborers. B6-0 LORD DON'T 'LOW ME TO BEAT Oh, Lawd, they don' 'low me to beat 'em; 'EM (Negro Holler). Got-a beg along. Sung by Willie Williams at State Peni tentiary, Richmond, Virginia, 1936. Re Cit up, Rhoady! Cee back there, Dempsey, corded by John A. Lomax. I don't want to kill you this mornin' ... "Hollering songs" are a distinct type of Negro Oh, Lawd, they don' 'low me to beat 'em; folk singing. Usually they consist of a two-line Got-a beg along. stanza in which the singer sometimes repeats the first verse two or three times and the last Tighten up a little bit! verse once-the whole introduced and followed by long drawn-out moaning or "yodling" or Oh, Lawd, if my good woman had-a been here, shouting in the tempo and mood of the tune he good pardncr• has been singing. They are sung with an open I wouldn't a-been here stumblin' and fallin', throat-shouted, howled, growled, or moaned tryin' to make it back home. in such a fashion that they will fill a stretch of Git up out that mud there! country, satisfy the wild and lonely and brood Look out there;· I'll knock you to your knees ing spirit of the worker. The holler is a musical torectly! platform from which the singer can freely state his individual woes, satirize enemies, and talk Oh, Lawd, I'm gain' back, good pardner, one about his woman. day 'fa' long, I don't need no tellin', already know. Look out there, Dempsey! 20 I got a whole heap to tell you, good pardner, Oh Lawd, when I get home, Lawd, I been stumblin' and fallin', tryin' to get away. Look out, mute! Gel up there! Lawd, if my woman had-a-been here, good pardner, Lawd, I'd a-done been gone, She'd a-brought my shooter, good pardner, and a box of balls. Look out, Rhoady, Get up, Jerry, Look out there Peart. I don't want to kilt one of you this mornin'. Oh Lawd, cap'n got a pistol and he want to be bad, Must-a been the first one he ever had. Look out there, Jerry! Oh Lawd, got a high ball wheeler, good pardner, and a western tongue, Gonna stick it in the bottom, boys, if it breaks myarm. ,:. From "Our Singing Country," John A. and Alan Lomax. 21 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 56-413 (rev) Available from the Recorded Sound Section, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540