Examples of "Dance Josey" & "Can't Dance Josey" Songs

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part I of a two part series of 19th songs that include the phrase "dance Josey" or "can't dance Josey".

Part I provides lyrics for a song that begins with the verse "Git your partner if you want’er dance Josey". Other songs mentioned in this post are "Hello Susan Brown", "Four in the Middle" (also known as "Two In The Middle"), and "Hold My Mule ("Jim Along Josie"). The song "Raging Canal" is also briefly mentioned in this post.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/08/chicken-in-fence-post-information-lyrics.html for Part II of this series. Part II focuses on the play party song "Chicken On The Fencepost" which also includes the words "can't dance Josey".

The content of this post is provided for folkloric, recreational, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

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INFORMATION ABOUT "DANCING JOSEY"
A number of 19th century American [United States] songs sung or called out while couples danced reels include the words "dance Josey" or "can't dance Josey".

Information about one way that "Josey" was danced is found in this excerpt from Round the Levee by Stith Thompson; 1916 (page 12)
"An elaboration of this form is found in several games which, while varying in figures, are related by having plans for changing partners. In “Josey”, the leading couple take the first couple to the right into the middle of the ring, and the four dance or march through the entire song. The first couple retire, and others take their place as the game continues.

Git your partner if you want’er dance Josey
Git your partner if you want’er dance Josey
Git your partner if you want’er dance Josey
Oh law, Susan Brown (or “Susie Gal” or “Miss Susan Brown”) (Partners swing left and right)

Hold my mule while I dance Josey etc. (Right and left circle)

Number nine can’t dance Josey etc (Swing right and left)
Wouldn't give a nickle if I couldn't dance Josey, etc.

Fiddler's drunk, and he can't dance Josey, etc.

Back step a little if you can't dance Josey, etc.

Git out of the ring if you can’t dance Josey etc

Usually sung for the last couple in the ring.
-snip-
"Oh law" means "Oh Lord".

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"HELLO SUSAN BROWN", "FOUR IN THE MIDDLE", AND "RAGING CANAL"
Here are three comments from http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=29975 about certain songs that include the "can't dance Josey" lyrics:

"Subject: RE: Origin: Four in the Middle
From:Richie
Date: 27 Feb 09 - 10:29 AM

Hi,

It seems clear that "Raging Canoe" is a mishearing of "Raging Canal."

The 1844 minstrel comic song "Raging Canal" was very popular in the 1800s. This song is clearly a different song and that the title has appeared as a lyric in the "Four in the Middle" songs."
-snip-
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: railroad steamroad river and canal
From:folk1234
Date: 26 Jan 01 - 09:19 AM

Your right Stewie. It was done by the CMT, before Chad left in the mid-60s. As with many songs they did, they modified the lyrics and tune to fit their truly unique vocal style. They made it much better.
-snip-
Subject: Lyr Add: HELLO SUSAN BROWN (f/Chad Mitchell Trio)
From:Stewie
Date: 28 Jan 01 - 02:59 AM

Thanks folk1234. I have found it. It's on a 1962 live recording by the Chad Mitchell Trio - 'At the Bitter End' Kapp Records PK 6002. They recorded it under the title 'Hello Susan Brown' arranged and adapted by Milt Okun. The lyrics are similar to 'Ragin' Canal (Two in the Middle)' in the DT as pointed to by Dick.
Coffee grows on white oak tree etc
Two in the middle and I can't dance Josie
Two in the middle and I can't get around
Two in the middle and I can't dance Josie
Hello Susan Brown

Railroad, steamboat river and canal
I lost my true love on that ragin' canal
She's gone gone gone
And she's gone gone gone
She's gone for to stay on that ragin' canal
Four in the middle etc
Fiddle in the middle etc
Wheel around, turn around etc
Coffee grows on white oak tree etc
-snip-
"Wheel around" means "to spin around".
-snip-
Click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4wxJG-98QA for a video of the Chad Mitchell Trio singing "Hello Susan Brown". That song begins at 6:16 of that video.

Also, click http://www.songlyrics.com/chad-mitchell-trio/hello-susan-brown-lyrics/ for lyrics to the Chad Mitchell Trio version of "Hello Susan Brown".

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HOLD MY MULE (JIM ALONG JOSEY)
From "On The Trail Of Negro Folk Songs" edited by Dorothy Scarborough, Publisher: Cambridge, [Mass.] : Harvard University Press, 1925 [pages 105-106]

Hold my mule while I dance Josey
Hold my mule while I dance Josey
Oh, Miss Susan Brown.

Wouldn't give a nickel if I couldn't dance Josey
Wouldn't give a nickel if I couldn't dance Josey
Oh, Miss Susan Brown

Had a glass of buttermilk and I danced Josey
Had a glass of buttermilk and I danced Josey
Oh, Miss Susan Brown
-snip-
This song and the other "Jim Along Josey" songs are given in the section for "dance songs and reels". The author wrote that "Hold My Mule" was "danced like the Virgina Reel".

Click http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=52464#1233225 for my comments about the different meanings of the word "josey".

Click http://www.cocojams.com/content/african-american-secular-slave-songs for another variant of "Jim Along Josie" that was collected by Dorothy Scarborough.

And click http://www.fresnostate.edu/folklore/ballads/R575.html for information about "Jim Along Josie".
WARNING: What is now known as the n word is fully spelled out on this page.

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Thanks to the unknown composers of these songs. Thanks also to the folklorists who collected these songs and all those who are quoted in this post.

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