FOLK MUSIC OF THE UNITED STATES Music Oivision Recording Laboratory AFS L8 From the Archive of Folk Song Edited by B. A. Botkin WASHINGTON . ~ . AI-UNLOADING RAILS Walk to the car, steady yourself. AI-TAMPING TIES Head high! Called by Henry Truvillion at Wiergate, Throw it away! Tex., 1940. Recorded by John A. and Ruby That's just right. T. Lomax. Go back and get another one. You got the wrong one that time .... Henry Truvillion (now Rev. Henry Truvil­ li on, pastor of a small country church near New­ Walk humble and don't yo u stumble, to n, Texas) grew up on a farm in Mississippi And don't you hurt nobody. and has at various times been railroad section Walk to the car and steady yourself. hand, boss of a construction gang on southern Stand a minute. railways, driver of a "two-horse wheeler" on Head high! Mississippi River levee-building jobs, and roust­ Good-bye, rail! about on Mississippi River steamboats. For Good iron! nearly twenty years he was head tracklayer for I heard it ring-nnng.... the Wiergate Lumber Company, where, accord­ Go back and get another one . ... in g to John A. Lomax, "track-laying goes on All right, steady. the year round. Railways must be built to drag Stand a minute. the big logs out of the woods miles from the Get yo ur wi nd a minute. mills. " Head high! The problems presented by recording railroad Good-bye, old rail' construction songs an d calls on the job are such That's all right, son. that most attempts are unsuccessful. In spite of Go back and get another one .... a certain loss of authenticity that results from "stagin g" the work, the present record has con­ Wa lk humble and don't you stumble. siderable documentary value-for its language Don't let me hurt nobody. and declamation style as much as for what is This is the safety first company. said. Only excerpts from Mr. Truvi1lion's rapid­ Steady! fire monolog for unloading steel rails are given Head high! below. Good-bye! For a track-lining holler ("Sis Joe") by Henry That's all right! Truvi11ion, see Our Singing Country, coll ected I heard it ring! and compiled by John A. Lomax and Alan Now let's go back and get another one . .. Lomax, Ruth Crawford Seeger, music editor · (New York, 1941), pp. 262- 64. A number of steel-laying, tie-shuffling, an d TAMPING TIES tie-tamping chants are given in American Bal­ lads and Folk Songs, collected and compiled by Tamp 'em up solid, John A. Lomax and Alan Lomax (New York, All the livelong day. 1934), pp. 10-20. Tamp 'em up solid, Then they'll hold that midnight mail. UNLOADING RAILS The captain don't like me. Won't allow me no show . All right now, listen to me right good. Well, work don't hurt me, Walk up until you're almost to the car. Don't care where in the world I go. Inside men, step back. Work don't hurt me, Outside, pull up good and strong. Like the early rise. Head high! Well, work don't hurt me, Throw it away! But that's the thing that hurts my pride, That's all right! That hurts my pride, I heard it ring. That hurts my pride, Come on back and get another one now ... That hurts my pride. 1 A3-HEAVING THE LEAD LINE Don't you change your mind. Called by Sam Hazel at Greenville, Miss., Heave it in the water just-a one more time. 1939. Eight feet and a half, Mr. Pilot, will you change your mind. A4-MISSISSIPPI SOUNDING CALL 1 Run him on a slow bell, AS- MISSISSIPPI SOUNDING CALL 2 Run him on a slow bell. Called by Joe Shores at Greenville, Miss., Quarter less twain on the sta'board side. 1939. Recorded by Herbert Halpert. Mr. Pilot, will you change your mind. Drap it on over on the left-hand side. Tell me there's a buoy, a buoy right on the This record will be interesting to all readers bar. of Mark Twain, especiall y of his Life on the The light is twisted, and you can see just Mississippi. how. On February 2, 1863, according to George pull a little over to the la'board side. D. Lyman, in The Saga of the Comstock Lode Lawd, Lawd. (New York, 1941), p. 213, Samuel L. Clemens, Quarter less twain, then a reporter on the Territorial Enterprise, of Quarter less twain, Was hoe, Nevada, dropped his undistinguished Quarter less twain, pen-name, "Josh," and first signed himself Quarter less twai n, "Mark Twain. " This was originally the "nom de Lawd, Lawd, now send me quarter less plume of one Capt. Isaiah Sellers, who used to twain. write river news over it for the New Orleans Throw the lead line a little higher out. Picayune" (according to a letter of Twain's I've gone low down, so mark twain, dated June 24, 1874). "Mark twain" is the Mark twain. sounding call for two fathoms, or 12 feet­ Come ahead, Mr. Pilot, a little bit strong. "just enough draft for the boat to get over." In I've done got over, and I believe we're his chant Sam Hazel, eighty-six years old, calls gonna th e sounding calls the "old way," as he heard Throw the lead line over-­ them while roustabouting on the Ohio and Mis­ No bottom here. sissippi Rive rs. Joe Shores, fifty-two years old, uses "newer" call s. At the time of this record­ in g, he was pilot on the night run of the A. C. MISSISSIPPI SOUNDING CALLS Jaynes, a ferryboat plying between Greenville, Mississippi, and Arkansas City, Arkansas. 1. No bottom, Mark four, The soundings are call ed by the leadsman to Quarter less four, a deckhand (the word passer) on the hurricane Quarter less fiv e, deck, who relays them to the pilot. "Quarter Half twain, less twain" means two fathoms less a quarter, Quarter twain. or 10.5 feet. Similarily, "quarter less four" is 22.5 feet, and "quarter less five" is 28.5 feet. 2. Quarter less four, "Half twain" is 2.5 fathoms or 15 feet. Half twain, Quarter twain, HEAVING THE LEAD LINE Mark twain, Quarter less twain, Now we're stuck there-?­ Nine and a half feet, For the lead line drapped off right now. Nine feet, Well, old deck hand, when you git on top Eight and a half feet. I'm gonna hear that line-?­ Let the old boat draw. Lord, I'm throwin' lead line on the la'board A6-ARWHOOLIE (CORNFIELD HOLLER) side. Sung by Thomas J. Marshall at Edwards, Quarter less twain, Miss., 1939. 2 QU ITTIN' TIME SONG 2 1;/-QUITIIN' TIME SONGS I and 2 Sung by Samuel Brooks at Edwards, Miss., O h, etc. 1939. MEALTIME CALL A9-MEALTIME CALL Oh, Miss Wright, Called by Thomas J. Marshall at Edwards, Why don't you ri ng that bell" Miss., 1939. Recorded by Herbert Halpert. Oh, Miss Wright, At the time of this recording Thomas J. Mar­ Why don't you rin g that bell ? shall and Samuel Brooks were students at the I can tell Southern Christian Institute, Mount Beulah Col­ The way those greens smell. lege, Edwards. They were brought up together in Edwards and often worked together on the AIO-POSSUM WAS AN EVIL THING same job. According to Mr. Marshall, the "ori g­ A II- COME ON, BOYS, AND LET'S GO TO in al name" of the cornfield holl er is "arwhooli e" HUNTlN' or "hoolie." Of the "Quitting Time Song," Mr. Sung by Henry Truvillion at Burkeville, Brooks says: "They si ng it late in the evening. Tex., 1940. Recordcd by John A. and About the time they quit, they generall y feel Ruby T. Lomax. good and they like to si ng this kind of thing .. They usually si ng it on a plantation ... if one I n order to appreciate these children's songs, man starts, well, across maybe another field one must visualize the settin g in the cotton fi elds, close by, why, they sing that same tune back to where childrcn have bccn pi ckin g cotton and are him.... Then maybe another man may answer thinking of a fcast of fat possum baked with him another tune." " Mealtime Call " origi nated sweet potatoes. "Along toward sundown," says among the students at the institute, where meals Henry Truvillion, "we'd all leave and go on were served "on the bell" by Miss Wright, the home, and you can hear sometimes twenty-five dining hall matmn. boys and twenty-five girls all going home through For a discussion of "call" and " response" in the woods and across the fi elds, and they're all fi eld calls, see Negro Folk Rhymes by Thomas singing the same song back at one another." W. Talley (New York, 1922), pp. 264 ff. POSSUM WAS AN EVIL THING ARWHOOLIE Poss um was an evil thing, Oh, etc. He rambles in the dark. I won't be here long. He didn't know what the trouble was, Oh, etc. Until he hear old Rover bark. Oh, dark gonna catch me here, Ooooh, baby, who*-oh-hoo! Dark gonna catch me here. Ooooh, baby, who-oo-hoo-hoo! Oh, etc. That's my baby, who-oh-oo-oo-oh' Ooooh, baby, who-oh-hoo! Old Aunt Dinah, who-oo-oo-oo! QUITTIN' TIME SONG I Old Aunt Dinah, who-ho-oo-oo-ho! Ooooh, the sun goin g down, Ooooh, baby, who-oh-hoo! And I won't be here long, Ooooh, baby, who-oo-hoo-hoo! Ooooh, the sun going down, That's me a-talkin', who-ho-hoo-hoo-oh! And I won't be here long.