Charlie Over The Ocean (children's game song)

Edited by Azizi Powell

"Charlie Over The Ocean" is the name of a children's singing game.
This game may have been of African American origin as the earliest mention of it that I've found is in [White American] folklorist Harold Courlander's book & recordings entitled Negro Folk Music of Alabama.* That book & records were compiled from field recordings that Courlander made in rural Alabama in 1950. "Charlie Over The Ocean" is also included in Harold Courlander's 1963 collection Negro Folk Music: U.S.A.

*Notice the update about the song "Over The Water" [or "River"] to Charlie" which is added below on August 14, 2013

Here's the excerpt about this game from Negro Folk Music: U.S.A Google Books

[Pages 159 - 160; "Ring Games and Playparty Songs]

"Charlie Over the Ocean" is a drop-the-handkerchief type of game, in which the leader moves around the outside of the ring, He sings each line of the song, which the group repeats responsively. He thrusts a small object, such as a small stone, in the hand of the person standing in the ring;** the individual so designated chases the leader around the outside of the ring and tries to catch him before he gets to the vacated space. If he fails to accomplish his mission, he, in turn, become the leader.

Charlie over the ocean
Charlie over the sea
Charlie caught a blackbird (blackfish)
Can’t catch me.
Can’t catch me.
-snip-
The person who is "it" & then the rest of the group sings "blackfish" in their second iteration of that game song [as sung in the brief sound file in the field recording by Harold Courlander that is found at http://www.folkways.si.edu/TrackDetails.aspx?itemid=11577 [See the Related Link below for the complete listing of songs in that recording.]

Notice also that it appears that the way that "Charlie Over The Ocean" was played by the group of African American children who were recorded by Harold Courlander was that the name "Charlie" was retained with each iteration of the song. The first time the song was sung "Charlie" caught a "blackbird". The second time the same person who was "it" sung the song, "Charlie" caught a "blackfish". Although “Charlie” is almost always considered a male nickname (for Charles)***, that name doesn’t change with each person who is “it”, regardless of the gender of the child.

Also notice that in renditions of this game that I've found online, "blackbird" and "blackfish" are replaced by "big bird" and "big fish" or some other items (for instance, "starfish").

My position is that the words "blackbird" and "blackfish" may have been purposely used by the Black children who played that game that Courlander collected. To be clear, I believe that "black" in the word "blackbird" and "blackfish" was an allusion to a racial reference for those Black children who (given those times-in the 1950s) probably considered it to be an insult to be called "black" or "blackie". Notice that there aren't any versions of this game in which another color bird or another type of fish is used. And is "blackfish" a real type of fish? If the color "black" wasn't significant why not use a more common type of fish- or a different type of bird?

My guess is that the word "black" was purposely replaced in contemporary renditions of "Charlie Over The Ocean" because of the possible problematic racial associations of that word.****

Editor's Notes:
*See Update below.

**In contemporary renditions of Charlie Over The Ocean, it appears that the game is played like "duck duck goose": A person is tapped on the back or the shoulder instead of a small item being handed to the person that "it" selects.

***Although it’s rare, “Charlie” could be considered a female nickname of “Charlene”. However, I don’t think that children playing this game are/were concerned about the possible mismatch between the name of the character in the rhyme and the person who is “it”.

**** In this age of (in my opinion) "pretend" [racial] color blindness, just mentioning skin color is often considered by adults to be problematic and even racist. As you can probably tell from my comments, I don't agree with such conclusions.
-snip-

For what it's worth, I don't remember this game from my childhood (in Atlantic City, New Jersey in the 1950s.) Nor do I remember my children playing this game in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the 1980s. However, although I don't have any written documentation of it, I vaguely recall an African American female friend of mine sharing with me that she & her female & male friends sang this version during their childhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the 1980s as a prelude to a chasing game:
"Charlie over the ocean
Charlie over the sea
Charlie kissed a iittle girl
But he can't kiss me.
-snip-
If this recollection is accurate, that was "back in the day" when boys and girls played [self-initiated and not adult initiated] singing games & chasing games together. It seems to me that boys and girls rarely play self-initiated singing games. Also, it seems to me that boys & girls rarely even play playground games together with the exception of lightly competitive hand slapping games such as "Stella Ella Ola". Furthermore, if girs and boys do play playground games together, they absolutely don't play "give me a kiss" games.

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FEATURED VIDEOS
(These videos are given in chronological order based on their posting date with the oldest video presented first.)

Example #1: Charlie Over the Ocean.mov



denisegagne50, Uploaded on Sep 9, 2010

Singing game for children from Musicplay 1 elementary music curriculum. This is included in Musicplay 1 digital resources.
-snip-
Children playing this game retain the name “Charlie”. However, with each iteration, the child who is “it” changes what “Charlie” caught [for example “a name of a cartoon character” or a hamster.]
Another change in how this group plays this game is that the children who were “it” sit in the middle of the circle (the ring) after their turn.

****
Example #2: Game - Charlie Over the Ocean 1 2B



mpielementary Uploaded on Dec 13, 2010
Recorded on August 24, 2010 using a Flip Video camcorder.
-snip-
This group substited the name of child who is "it" instead of the name “Charlie”. Also, “blackbird”/ “blackfish” are changed to the non-problematic & potentially positively received item “starfish”; Example: “Ian” [child who is “it”] caught a starfish

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Example #3Charlie Over the Ocean

Vincebates, Published on May 3, 2012
Charlie over the ocean . . .
Charlie over the sea . . .
Charlie caught a blackbird . . .
Can't catch me . . .

(You could sing the name of the student-who-is-it in the place of "Charlie")
-snip-
This group is probably education students who are learning this game so that they can teach it when they become elementary school teachers.

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RELATED LINK
Here's a complete listing of the songs that are featured in Courlander's recording Negro Folk Music of Alabama, Vol. 6: Ring Game Songs and Others Various Artists FW04474 [Brief sound clips of these songs are featured at this link]

Mary Mack [performed by] - Lilly's Chapel School (Ala.) [length of recording] 2:00

Bob a Needle - Lilly's Chapel School (Ala.) 0:54

Watch That lady -Lilly's Chapel School (Ala.) 1:20

Old Lady Sally Wants to Jump -Lilly's Chapel School (Ala.) 0:51

Loop de Loop -Lilly's Chapel School (Ala.) 1:47

Green Green Rocky Road -Lilly's Chapel School (Ala.) 1:29

Rosie Darling Rosie -Brown's Chapel School 1:37

I Must See -Brown's Chapel School 1:37

Bluebird Bluebird -Pilgrim Church School (Ala.) 1:13

May Go 'Round the Needle -East York School (Ala.) :2:35

Stooping on the Window -East York School (Ala.) 1:10

Charlie Over the Ocean -East York School (Ala.) 0:55

Session with Celina Lewis, (a)Catch That Squirrel, (b)Sangar ee, (c) Whoa Mule, Can't Get the Saddle On,... Celina Lewis 5:14

Water on the Wheel -Annie Grace Horn Dodson 0:48

Go Pray Ye -Annie Grace Horn Dodson 2:37

Captain Holler Hurry -Willie Turner 1:27

John Henry -Willie Turner 2:16

Going to Have a Talk with the Chief of Police -Peelee Hatchee (Emanuel Jones) 1:48

Meet Me in the Bottoms -Davie Lee 1:36

When the Role is Called in Heaven -Joe Brown, Harrison Ross, and Willie John Strong 2:40

I Moaned and I Moaned -Joe Brown, Harrison Ross, and Willie John Strong 1:21

I'm Standing in a Safety Zone -Rosie N. Winston 2:53

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UPDATE: August 14, 2013 [amended] & UPDATE: August 16, 2013
I just came across the song "Over The Water [or "The River] Charlie [or "To Charlie"]. Here's a version of the lyrics for that song from http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/song-midis/Over_the_Water_to_Charlie.htm

Over the Water to Charlie

It's over the water, it's over the sea
It's over the water tae Charlie
Come weal, come woe, we'll gather and go
To live or die wi Charlie

Come boat me over, come ferry me o'er
Come boat me over tae Charlie
Hear the call once but never again
To carry me over tae Charlie

O once I had sons, but now I've got nane
I treated them all sae sarely
But I would bear them all again
To live and die for Charlie

I swear by moon and stars sae bright
Sun that shines sae dearly
If I had twenty thousand lives
I'd live them all for Charlie

Come boat me o'er, come now or never
Come boat me o'er tae Charlie
I'll gie John Ross another bawbee
To ferry me o'er tae Charlie

It's well I lo'e me Charlie's name
Tho some there be abhor him
But O tae see Auld Nick gaun hame
And Charlie's face afore him
-snip-
Click http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=97222#1910772 Origins "Weevily Wheat" for several comments by Richie and others that provides information about this song including this documentation from Andrew Kuntz:
"OVER THE RIVER TO CHARLIE [2]. AKA ‑ "Over the Water To Charlie." AKA and see "We Prefer Our Own King," "Wha'll (Who'll) Be King But Charlie," "Royal Charlie," "Fy Buckle Your Belt," "More Power to Ye," "Behind the Bush in the Garden [1]." Scottish (originally), Irish, American; Jig or March. USA: southwestern Pa.; Wetzel County, W.Va. A Mixolydian. Standard. AB. Bayard (1981) feels this tune has more claim to its title than other of the "River" or "Water" tunes, as it had Jacobite associations prior to its first printing. The earliest version found by him is in Capt. Simon Fraser's collection and appears as "Se'n Righ atha aguin is fear linn" (We Prefer Our Own King), and Fraser's notes indicate that it was known in Ireland as well as Scotland. By 1745, the high tide of the Jacobite rebellion, the tune was disseminated enough to be called "one of the incentives of rebellion" (Fraser) and soon became associated with the anonymous lyrics "Wha'll Be King But Charlie?" by which title instrumental versions are often known"...
[posted by Richie, 15 Dec 06 - 11:20 PM]
-snip-
I'm convinced that the song "Over The Water To Charlie" is the primary source of the game song "Charlie Over The Ocean". Given the documentation that I've found to date, it still appears to me that African Americans were the ones who created the children's game from that "Over The Water [To] Charlie song.

Click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnOHo0L5_pU for a video of "Over The River Charlie".
-snip-
Update

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Thanks to Harold Courlander for collecting this game song. Thanks to all those who are featured in this post.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

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Debunking The Urban Myth About "Hooka Tooka Soda Cracka"

Edited by Azizi Powell

"Hooka Tooka Soda Craka" is a song that is most often associated with the Rhythm & Blues singer Chubby Checker or the Folk/Pop singer Judy Henske.

I've read a number of places online a story that is attributed by her fans to Judy Henske that the lyrics to "Hooka Tooka Soda Cracker" come from Black American children who would sing this song to warn their prostitue mothers that the police were outside. For example, read this YouTube sound file publisher's summary:

Hooka Tooka Two



Man06ful, Uploaded on Aug 22, 2009
"the main lyrics here came from a skip rope song by children of prostitutes playing outside the whore houses. Somehow Judy Henske found this song - svaed [sic] it. The kids were holding soda crackers and chewing tobacco to pass to their mothers if there was a bust."
-snip-
This video uploader expands on that story in his or her comments on that sound file's viewer comment thread:
"Henske made up the lyrics - Green Rocky Road - and had a law suit for years with Chubby Checker who - used her lyrics. Henske introduced the song - explaining the bit about kids in front of whore houses holding chewing tobbacco and soda crackers for their mothers if there was a bust - because in jail they werent allowed cigarettes and the bread was mouldy. The rythme - lyrics are exactly like other skip rope songs....
-Man06ful, 2010 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsAt9hrrKh0
-snip-
The story that "Hooka Tooka Soda Cracka" comes from a "skip rope song by children of protitutes playing outside the whore houses" just doesn't seem credible to me.

It ssems probable to me that this story is an elaboration by fans of a joking comment that Judy Henske made during an introduction to that song, an elaboration which was not only accepted by some of her fans, but grew to include the "holding soda cracker and chewing tobacco" portion. According to a blogger with the screen name "old frat" on this 1996 discussion thread https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/rec.music.folk/SkUpw3iKaQs "Hooka Tooka My Soda Cracker"
"Judy Henske does a great version of this song ["Does your mama chaw tobacca?], and is probably the one you remember.

On the album, it starts with a humorous monologue intro where she asks the group to repeat the chorus. She then says, "You sound like a bunch of kids outside a Chicagoe whorehouse." The song itself doesn't really seem to be about this subject at all --or I've been mssing the true meaning of soda cracker all of my life."
-snip-
The question about which album this comment is found in was answered by this comment that was posted in 2003 by Joe Offer on this thread of the Mudcat Folk & Blues music forum http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=59549 "Lyr Req: PLease help 'Hucka CHucka soda cracka'?":
"I found the Henske arrangement - it's on her self-titled album, released on Elektra in 1963 and recently reissued on CD. She calls it "Hooka Tooka," and says it's traditional, arranged by Henske."

If this story isn't an elaboration by her fans of a comment that Judy Henske made about the quality of her audience's singing that "Hooka Tooka" song, if Judy Henske actually believed the story about the song being used by children to warn their mothers of a police bust story, I have these questions:

How did that singer learn that the jump rope rhyme/song "Hooka Tooka Soda Cracka" was used by those Black children (in Chicago or elsewhere) as a means of warning their mothers or other women in that whore house that a police bust was imminent? Did she hear the children singing that song and then go up to them and ask them why they were singing it? If the children told her that story, did she believe it without checking it? And how would she check such a story? Isn't it possible that those Black children made up a fanciful story for that White woman?

Also, how did she know that they were "holding soda crackers and chewing tobacco to give to their mothers if there was a bust? Where were these items placed while they were turning a jump rope and jumping rope? Furthermore, is it consistent with mothers' behaviors that they would force their children or encourage their children to play in front of the house where they are whoring so that their children would warn them in a pre-arranged manner of a possible police bust?

In my opinion, that this story has been accepted by so many people without questioning its crediblity speaks to Americans' negative stereotypes about Black women.

Even if Judy Henske somehow learned that "Hooka Tooka Soda Craker" was sung by some children in Chicago to warn their mothers of a police bust, that doesn't mean that this song was first sung for that reason. Nor does it mean that this song was always sung for that reason.

CORRECTING THAT URBAN MYTH
I believe that the song "Hooka Tooka Soda Cracka" is an American (probably African American) adaptation of the United Kingdom children's counting out rhyme "Icka Backa Soda Cracker". I also believe that the United Kingdom children's singing game "Walking On The Green Grass" is another source of "Hooka Tooka Soda Cracker" song. The American song "Green Green Rocky Road" sometimes include a version of "Hooka Tooka Soda Cracka". Click this page of my Cocojams cultural website for text versions of these & other songs that I believe are related to "Hooka Tooka Soda Cracka": http://cocojams.com/content/text-analysis-hooka-tooka-soda-cracker.

By the way, the end word of "hooka tooka soda cracka" rhymes with the second line in that couplet -"does your mama chew tobacca". The "does your mama chew tobacco" line probably originated as a "dig" (an insult, rip, diss). That phrase definitely predates Judy Henske's 1963 song, "Hooka Tooka" song e.g. read the entry "Green Green Rocky Road" given below which "was collected [in 1955] from the children of Lilly Chapel School in York, Alabama and is found in "Negro Songs From Alabama" by Harold Courlander".

I'll let others debate whether Judy Henske or Ernest Evans (Chubby Checker) was the first to write the "Hooka Tooka" song.

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FEATURED SOUND FILES AND VIDEOS

Example #1: Chubby Checker Hooka Tooka Forever Gold 1999



JesusSierra408, Uploaded on Jun 22, 2009

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Example #2: hookatooka

.

redheadedberry, Uploaded on Feb 22, 2009
-snip-
Girls singing "Hooka Tooka" around a camp fire.

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Example #3: Taj Mahal & André Christovam - Green Green Rocky Road



Annecysavoie | December 27, 2008
Heineken Concerts - Bourbon Street - São Paulo - 2000

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Acka Backa Soda Cracker!



julietlovesjoe Published on Jun 12, 2012

They played a game at Luka's concert this morning. Check it out!! 6/12/2012

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OTHER RELATED LINKS
Click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtgno5szcH8 for an example of the children's singing game "Walking On The Green Grass".

Click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHpXS01tz4A for a choral version of the song "Walking On The Green Grass".

Click this page of my Cocojams website http://cocojams.com/content/choosing-it-rhymes for additional text versions of the counting out rhyme "Acka Backa Soda Cracka" and other counting out rhymes.

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

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the composers of this song. Thanks also to those whose comments I quoted. Also, thanks to those featured in these videos, to the producers of these videos, and to the video's publishers on YouTube.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

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Whoa Mule Can't Get The Saddle On) - Lyrics & Comments, Part II

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part II of a two part series on the game song "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On)."

Part II of this series presents additional text examples of and comments about "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On)".

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/03/whoa-mule-cant-get-saddle-on-lyrics.html for Part I of this series.

Part I compares "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On) with two other songs: the 19th century Southern Black song/old time banjo (Bluegrass) song "Whoa Mule Whoa" and the 19th century African American game song "Peep Squirrel". Part I also presents two text versions of "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On)". One of these versions (given as Example #1) includes this Mp3 sample: http://www.amazon.com/Whoa-Mule-Cant-Get-Saddle/dp/B0010XJ700

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

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Unfortunately, I've not been able to find any YouTube sound file or video versions of "Whoa Mule: Saddle". If anyone knows of video or sound file versions of these songs, please post a comment below. Thank you in advance.

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EXAMPLES OF WHOA MULE (CAN'T GET THE SADDLE ON)
(The numbers assigned to these examples continue from Part I of this series).

Example #3:
From Bessie Jones and Bess Lomax Hawes Step It Down, Games, Plays, Songs & Stories from the Afro-American Heritage University of Georgia Press, 1972; p. 214.

Peep Squirrel
Ya di da di deedy dum

Peep Squirrel
Ya di da di deedy dum

Hop Squirrel
Ya di da di deedy dum

(each line is repeated as above)

Run Squirrel

Come here, mule.

Whoa, mule
I can’t get the saddle on.

Hold that mule,
I can’t get the saddle on.

Go that mule
I can’t get the saddle on.

Go that mule
Ya di da di deedy dum, a
Ya di da di deedy dum, dum!
-snip-
Comment written by Bess Lomax Hawes:
“You can sing “Peep Squirrel” while the children dance, or while you’re bouncing a child on your knees; or at a slower pace, it makes a fine song for a tired baby and a warm lap and a rocking chair. Mrs. Jones said that the “Ya di da di deedy dum” is the sound of the squirrel’s feet scuffling in the leaves"...
-snip-
The Cd Put Your Hand on Your Hip and Let Your Backbone Slip includes a recording of Bessie Jones singing "Peep Squirrel".
http://www.last.fm/music/Bessie+Jones/_/Peep+Squirrel

The length of that song is given as 2:32.

A 30 second mp3 sample is provided on that website. That sample is a recording of Bessie Jones explaining why the mule is including in the "Peep Squirrel" song. My summary of her comments is that a man trying to get a mule to catch a squirrel, but he’s too little to put the saddle on the mule and the saddle was too heavy.

In my opinion, the words to "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On)" were combined with "Peep Squirrel" because those two songs are have very similar lyric patterns, if not the same or similar tunes & tempos. My comparison of the lyric pattern of those two songs is found in Part I of this series.

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Example #4
From Harold Courlander Negro Folk Music U.S.A, Courier Dover Publications, 1963, p. 160

http://books.google.com/books?id=Lqb4ICh-1QwC&pg=PA160&lpg=PA160&dq=whoa+mule+can't+get+the+saddle+on&source=bl&ots=CIdKAAqwAH&sig=G7_pEl4_Rku6dLbaqtLjh0dLEJo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Y39DUfH5Gfi84AOn8oCgCg&ved=0CEcQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=whoa%20mule%20can't%20get%20the%20saddle%20on&f=false

Whoa Mule Can’t Get The Saddle On
“One song taken from an elderly informant was described as “as real grown up playparty”. Other than that it was “a kind of wild game that could get you thrown out of church”, no activity was given about the activity that accompanied the song.

Whoa mule Can’t Get The Saddle On (2x)
Stop that mule Can’t Get The Saddle On (2x)
Whoa mule Can’t Get The Saddle On(2x)
Run mule Can’t Get The Saddle On (2x)
Catch that mule Can’t Get The Saddle On (4x)
You go that mule Can’t Get The Saddle On
Go that mule Can’t Get The Saddle On
-snip-
My speculation about the risque nature of the performance of "Whoa Mule: Saddle" is given in the Addendum below.

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Example #5: Margaret McKee Beale Black & Blue: Life and Music on Black America's Main Street, p. 189 [Google Books]

[My summary of this excerpt is that an African American Bluesman talks about the way that enslaved Black people used songs during slavery to express feelings that the couldn't openly express, and to make coded comments about their treatment by White people & about their oppressive living conditions.]

“I’ll tell you why the blues come about. It’s an expression that a person have –he want to tell you something, and he can’t tell you in his words, he’ll sing it to you. See back in-well, I’ll just bring it right out plain where anybody can see it, in olden days, if a white man do a colored man wrong, he couldn’t tell him he was wrong. He’d go off on a mule or something, and sing back to that man, the blues, like, singing it to him. That’s the way a plenty of them songs come up.

Take my daddy. When he playing his fiddle in the slavery time, he wouldn’t want to play, but he had to play. So he’d go along and make things up and holler it out in the fields where the old boss man could hear him, just singing away. Now that’s what he meant – he’s tired of playing nearly every night and then working in the daytime.
[Asked for an example, he sang]

“Hey Liza, little Liza Jane.
Oh Liza, little Liza Jane,
Can’t get the saddle on the ole gray mule
Can’t get the saddle on the ole gray mule.
Whoa, whoa, mule, can’t get the saddle on the ole gray mule.

He’s saying that the white man done worked him so ‘til he can’t even put a saddle on the ole gray mule.* That’s what he’s talkin about.
Chicken in the bread pan
Pickin at the dough
When he gets through picking
He stratch for more.

That’s what they be singing to the white folks what wasn’t giving ‘em enough to eat. Yeah, in slavery time. All them things come out of slavery time. All that happened in them days."
-snip-
*I think that some words are implied in this sentence. With those words, the sentence would read “...done worked him so hard ‘til he can’t [even] get the saddle on the ole gray mule."

"Get the saddle on" means "to put the saddle on" (the mule).

On another page of this book the man speaking indicates that his father carried his fiddle to the fields. I believe that the implication is that his father was required to play the fiddle during the night for the White master’s entertainment, and then also required to play the fiddle during the day to help pace the work of other field hands.

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ADDENDUM
Example #2 (in Part I of this series) and Example #4 (above) allude to risque performance activity being associated with the e song "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On)". And example #4 indicates that it was adults who sung this song while engaging in "wild" behavior that would get them thrown out of the church. It seems likely that that performance activity verged on sexualized horse play. I wonder if the adults did piggyback rides when they sung "Ride the mule". Well, unless there is more documentation out there, we'll never know what was so risque about that play that before singing her version of that song (Example #2) Celina Hall had to basically tell church people to mind their own business.

I don't think that "Whoa Mule:Saddle" is still being played (by children or adults). However, I'm intrigued by the possibility that the circle game song "Here We Go Ride That Pony" may be an updated version of "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On".

Here's a text version of that game song (which is also played by children & adults)

RIDE THAT PONY
Here we go! (Ride that pony)
Ride around! (It's a big fat pony!)
Here we go! (Ride that pony)
This is how we do it:
Front to front to front, my baby!
Back to back to back, my baby!
Side to side to side, my baby!
THIS IS HOW WE DO IT!!!!

((Repeat until your hands fall off))
-AttheCircus (Webster Groves High School, Colorado Springsl Colorado)

Here's the video from which that version comes.

Ride That Pony



AttheCircus, Uploaded on Apr 20, 2008

The Webster Groves High School choir students play a long game of Ride that Pony in the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs on April 18, 2008.
-snip-
Notice the one girl riding "piggybank" on the man's back.

Click this page of my cultural website for more text and video examples of that game song:
http://cocojams.com/content/childrens-game-songs-and-movement-rhymes
-snip-
"Ride That Pony" is, in essence, an updated version of the old show me your motion circle games.

The activity performed by that group of high school students who are shown in the abovee video is the same or similar as that found in other videos of this game song. The group forms a wide circle. One person in the middle doesn't sing but instead "trots" around like a pony. At a specific time in the song, that person stands in front of someone who is forming the circle. The middle person then does a dance or some other movement. The person she or he stands in front of then does that same dance/movement along with the middle person. After doing that dance/movement, the two exchange places and the song begins again without any interruption.

This is not to say that I think that the performance activity of "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On)" was exactly the same as how "Ride That Pony" is played. Actually, my guess is that the performance activity for "Who Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On)" was probably much more raunchy.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND THANKS
Thanks to the unknown composers of this song. Thanks also to the folklorists who collected & recorded this song, and my thanks to the authors who are quoted, their informants, and all those who have recorded this song and/or been recorded singing this song.

Thanks also to the group featured performing the game song "Ride That Pony", and thanks to the uploader of that video.

Thank you for visiting pancocojams.

Viewer comments are welcome.

Read More

Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On) - Lyrics & Comments, Part I

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part I of a two part series on the game song "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On)."

Part I compares "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On) with two other songs: the 19th century Southern Black song/old time banjo (Bluegrass) song "Whoa Mule Whoa" and the 19th century African American game song "Peep Squirrel". Part I also presents two text versions of "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On)". One of these versions includes a Mp3 sample.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/03/whoa-mule-cant-get-saddle-on-lyrics_17.html for Part II of this series.

Part II of this series presents additional text examples of and comments about "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On)".

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

All copyrights remain with their owners.

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DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THIS SONG AND "WHOA MULE WHOA"
"Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On)" isn't the same song as "Whoa Mule" ("Whoa Mule Whoa"). "Whoa Mule" is a 19th century African American dance song which is also sung & played as an old time/Bluegrass banjo song. There are numerous versions of "Whoa Mule" and each of the text forms of that song are composed in a verse/chorus pattern. The verses are two line rhyming floaters which are found in multiple songs, including the 19th century Black dance song entitled "Simon Slick".

Links to text examples and a video example of Whoa Mule are provided in the related links section of this post.

In contrast, "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On)" is a song with a short varying line & a repeated refrain, a format which lends itself to it being sung using a call & response pattern. That said, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that "Whoa Mule" was the primary source of "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On").

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SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THIS SONG AND "PEEP SQUIRREL"
The song that "Whoa Mule: Saddle" resembles the most in its lyric pattern, in its words, and perhaps also in its tune is the 19th century African American children's play-party/chasing game "Peep Squirrel". Initially, the performance activities for "Peep Squirrel" and "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On" may have also been the same. Here's an excerpt of "Peep Squirrel":

Here Squirrel
Yada dada diddle um

Catch that squirrel
Yada dada diddle um

Run Squirrel
Yada dada diddle um
-snip-
[From http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/h?ammem/lomaxbib:@field(DOCID+@lit(l2699b2) The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip; Cerlina Lewis; Click the tab to hear that Mp3 sample.]
-snip-
The only difference in the text of the examples of "Whoa Mule:Saddle" that I've found and the text of "Peep Squirrel" is in the refrains for both songs. The refrain for "Whoa Mule:Saddle" is "Can't Get The Saddle On". The Mp3 tunes that I heard for those two songs sound very similar, but the tune for "Peep Squirrel" had a much faster tempo.

"Peep Squirrel" is described on the above cited website as a "play-party motion song; a game for chasing". It's possible that "Whoa Mule:Saddle" may have also been performed as a motion/chasing song. However, there are allusions to the performance of "Whoa Mule:Saddle" being risque. One hint of that is found in prefacing comments that the same Cerlina Lewis made in 1950 before she sang a version of "Whoa Mule:Saddle" that is included in folklorist Harold Courlander's Negro Folk Music of Alabama, Vol. 6: Ring Game Songs and Others Various Artists FW04474. Another hint of the risque nature of "Whoa Mule:Saddle"'s performance is found in another online quote which is found in Part II of this post.

Georgia Sea Isles folk singer Bessie Jones recorded a version of "Peep Squirrel" that includes lines from "Whoa Mule: Saddle". That version is given in Part II of this post.

Unfortunately, I've not been able to find any YouTube sound file or video versions of "Whoa Mule: Saddle" or "Peep Squirrel". If anyone knows of video or sound file versions of these songs, please post a comment below. Thank you in advance.

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EXAMPLES OF WHOA MULE (CAN'T GET THE SADDLE ON)
Example #1: 1:15 minute Mp3 sample
"Whoa Mule! Can't Get the Saddle On"
From the album Animal Folk Songs for Children by Mike, Peggy, Barbara & Penny Seeger
© 1992 Rounder
http://www.amazon.com/Whoa-Mule-Cant-Get-Saddle/dp/B0010XJ700

Whoa mule
Can't get the saddle on [repeat both lines 2x]

[using that same pattern]

Catch that mule

Ride that mule

Run mule
Can't get the saddle on [repeat both lines 4x]
-snip-
My description: This is an uptempo, call & response song.

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Example #2
From http://www.folkways.si.edu/TrackDetails.aspx?itemid=11578
FW04474_201
Session with Celina Lewis, (a)Catch That Squirrel, (b)Sangar ee, (c) Whoa Mule, Can't Get the Saddle On, from Harold Courlander's Negro Folk Music of Alabama, Vol. 6: Ring Game Songs and Others Various Artists FW04474 1955

From Harold Courlander's notes:
“The singer was an old woman when these songs were recorded. She had a reputation of having been a fine and spirited singer when she was young."

[Text of "Whoa Mule (Can't Get The Saddle On)- Celina Lewis; Alabama, 1950]

All you church folks looking right at me, and they calI on me
to praise ... get up there!
Whoa, mule, can 'I get the saddle on, (2)
Stop that mule, I can 't get the saddle on, (2)
Whoa mule, I can't get the saddle on, (2)
Run mule, I can't get the saddle on, (2)
Can't you catch that mule, can't get the saddle on,
Catch that mule, can't get the saddle on, (4)
Yon go that mule, can't get the saddle on
-snip-
My editorial comment:
I believe that "yon" is probably a clip of the word "yonder" (meaning "seen from a distance"). In more standard American English, that line would be given as "Yonder goes that mule" (I can see the mule in the distance.)

The "Go that mule" version of that line is the one used by Bessis Jones in the 1972 Step It Down (authors Bessie Jones and Bess Lomax Hawes). "Go that mule" is also the line for that song that was given by "an elderly informant" in Harold Courlander's 1963 book Negro Folk Music U.S.A. And that's the version of that line that most websites use. However, it's my opinion that "Go that mule" is an example of folk etymology. The "yon" word may have been dropped from that line because that wasn't the way that Bessie Jones and others learned it or the "yon" word may have been dropped because that word's meaning wasn't understood. Yet, "go that mule" doesn't make any sense in Standard American English or in African American Vernacular English, but hasn't stopped people from singing or, at least, from quoting that version of that line.

Both the Bessie Jones example & the example of this song that is quoted by Harold Courlander are presented in Part II of this series.

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RELATED LINKS
Click http://supersearch.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=5793&desc=yes Lyr Req: Whoa Mule for several text versions of & comment about that song.

Click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpKhWePGNPc for a performance of this song by Andy Griffin.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND THANKS
Thanks to the unknown composers of this song. Thanks also to the folklorists who collected & recorded this song, and my thanks to Celina Lewis, Bessie Jones and others who sung this song.

Thank you for visiting pancocojams.

Viewer comments are welcome.

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"Annie Had A Baby", The R&B Source Of Playground Rhyme "Pizza Pizza Daddy O"

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post is part of an ongoing series that showcases Rhythm & Blues songs which are sources of or whose lyrics are included in certain English language playground rhymes.

This post focuses on the 1954 song "Annie Had A Baby" by Hank Ballard & The Midnighters. It seems to me to be a undisputable fact that the R&B song "Annie Had A Baby" is the primary source for the children's rhyme "Pizza Pizza Daddy O".

A now deleted pancocojams post on the same subject was entitled "Mary Had A Baby" Song Sources For "Pizza Pizza Daddy O" Rhyme".

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

All copyrights remain with their owners.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE "ANNIE HAD A BABY" RECORD
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Had_a_Baby:

"Annie Had a Baby" is a 1954 single by The Midnighters. The single was one of many answer songs to "Work With Me, Annie", a previous hit for The Midnighters. "Annie Had a Baby" was also a number one hit on the R&B chart. A credible inspiration for this song was when a Los Angeles DJ played "Work With Me, Annie" then joked about a follow-up record titled "Annie Had a Baby" which caused King Records to receive orders for the then non-existing single. So the song was composed, recorded and released to fill the orders.

-snip-
Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_With_Me,_Annie to find information about the song "Work With Me, Annie" which was recorded by The Midnighters. Also, click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Ballard to find information about Rhythm & Blues artist Hank Ballard who composed that song and who led the group The Midnighters.

In addition, click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvzSlCH9AsM for a YouTube video of "Work With Me, Annie".
-snip-
Regarding the radio dj coming up with the words "Annie Had A Baby", there is a Christmas song which I believe is of African American origin that is entitled "Mary Had A Baby". Knowledge of that song could have contributed to the dj's witty suggestion of a song entitled "Annie Had A Baby" which the Midnighter's could sing after their hit record "Work With Me Annie".

Click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsGvuRIxR4Efor a video of the religious song "Mary Had A Baby".

The irony is that a R&B song that was considered by many to be too suggestive to be played on the radio - a song which was recorded as an answer to another record that was routinely banned by radio stations because of its sexually suggestive lyrics - became the source of a socially acceptable children's playground rhyme. And that same rhyme, with adaptations here & there, has become so acceptable that some elementary public school music teachers include it as part of their classroom curriculum.

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SOUND FILE & LYRICS FOR "ANNIE HAD A BABY"

Hank Ballard & Midnighters--Annie Had A Baby



Uploaded by nipsipone on Oct 2, 2011

**
ANNIE HAD A BABY
(Hank Ballard)

Annie had a baby, can't work no more
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
Annie had a baby, can't work no more
Every time she start to working
She has to stop to walk the baby 'cross the floor

She had to walk with the baby
Instead of me
Talk to the baby
Instead of me
Sing to the baby
Instead of me
Cling to the baby
Instead of me
Now I know I know Annie understood
That's what's happens when the game gets good

[chorus]
Reposted from http://www.elyrics.net/read/h/hank-ballard-&-the-midnighters-lyrics/annie-had-a-baby-lyrics.html

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TEXT & VIDEO EXAMPLES OF "PIZZA PIZZA DADDY-O"
Example #1

PIZZA PIZZA DADDY O
(children's playground rhyme, no known author)

Mary had a baby (Tanya, Sherry, etc.)
Pizza Pizza daddy-o
How you know it?
Pizza Pizza daddy-o
Cause she told me
Pizza Pizza daddy-o
What's his name
Pizza Pizza daddy-o
Jessie James
Pizza Pizza daddy-o
What's special?
Pizza Pizza daddy-o
Toilet tissue
Pizza Pizza daddy-o
Let's jerk it
Pizza Pizza daddy-o
Let's swim it
Pizza Pizza daddy-o
Let's skate it,
Pizza Pizza daddy-o
Let's freak it,
Pizza Pizza daddy-o
Let's twine it
Pizza Pizza daddy-o
Let's bat it
Pizza Pizza daddy-o
Let's fan it
Pizza Pizza daddy-o
Let's spin it
Pizza Pizza daddy-o.
-from http://www.folkstreams.net/context,201 DVD - "The Films of Bess Lomax Hawes" by Bob Eberein and Bess Lomax Hawes

Editor: The actions that are indicated in this movement rhyme are done with accompanying motions. For instance, "Let's skate it" means to act like you are skating, "Let's bat it" means to act like you are swinging a baseball bat", "Let's fan it" meaning "act like you are waving a fan", "Let's swin it" means to act like you are swiming, and "Let's spin it" means to spin your body around. "Twine", "jerk", and "freak" are specific dance moves which later became the names of specific R&B dances.

Here's a video of that version of "Pizza Pizza Daddy O":
Pizza Pizza Daddy-O



Uploaded by mediageneration on Dec 12, 2009

From the DVD- The Films of Bess Lomax Hawes available from http://www.media-generation.com [Los Angeles African American girls, 1955]

-snip-
Notice that the lyrics of the Midnighters' song "Annie Had A Baby" include the action words "walk", "talk", "sing", and "cling". It wasn't difficult for some creative person or persons to change those verbs to dance or movement words. There's no telling why the refrain "Pizza pizza Daddy O" was used for this rhyme. But those words certainly add a nice rhythmic effect.

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Example #2

Robertson Pizza Pizza Daddy O.MP4



LincolnMusic185 | June 04, 2010

**
PIZZA PIZZA DADDY O
(Children's Movement Song/Rhyme, no known author)

Annie has a boyfriend. [Participants stand in circle without holding hands]
Pizza Pizza Daddy-o [On the words "Pizza Pizza Daddy-O:, participants do a "scissors jump"-jump crossing their feet in front.]
How you know it?
Pizza Pizza Daddy-o
Cause she told me.
Pizza Pizza Daddy-o
Let's swim it [make swimming motions]
Pizza Pizza Daddy-o
Let's rope it [Imitate twirling a rope above their head]
Pizza Pizza Daddy-o
Let's duck it. [hold their nose and duck down like they are jumping underwater]
Pizza Pizza Daddy-o
Let's end it. [turn around in a circle with their arms raised over their head]
Pizza Pizza Daddy-o
-snip-
I observed African American girls & boys (ages 8 & 9 years, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 2010) performing this movement song at a pizza party in their classroom on their last day of school. The same words (with slightly different motions) were sung by students in another elementary school classroom also in the USA (That video is reposted below). The fact that students from different schools performed the same version of "Pizza Pizza Daddy-O" implies that some standard version of that movement song is being circulated among elementary school music teachers who then teach that version to their students. Unfortunately, what appears to have been lost in this process is the notion that the words to this song - and the words to other playground rhymes/movement songs - aren't fixed but can be updated and otherwise changed by the group.

Instead of the words "Anne Had A Baby", some examples of "Pizza Pizza Daddy O" 'clean up' those lyrics by saying "Anne (or some other female name) Had A Boyfriend". I have also found other versions of "Pizza Pizza Daddy O" that 'clean up' the original "suggestive" lyrics by starting with the words "Jimmy" (or some other male or female name) Had A Party". I also have collected one version of this song with the title & beginning words "Pizza Pizza Mighty Moe" (from Bessie Jones' & Bess Lomax Hawes' 1972 book Step It Down. That last example appears to be a result of folk etymology, when words are misheard or misremembered or similarly sounding words are substituted for unfamiliar words. However, children or adults may have also purposely substituted socially acceptable words for words that are considered to be risque. Because of the Puritan influenced mores of the United States, the administration and teachers of many public schools would have frown upon teachers singing the words "Anne Had A Baby". But the words "___ Had A Party" or even "___ Had A Boyfriend (or, in the case of a boy being the first one in the center of the circle "___ Had A Girlfriend") would be much more socially acceptable.

Click http://cocojams.com/content/childrens-game-songs-and-movement-rhymes for additional text examples, videos, and comments about "Pizza Pizza Daddy-O".

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT & THANKS
Thanks to Hank Ballard for composing & The Midnighters for their recording of "Annie Had A Baby". Thanks to the unknown composers of the children's playground rhyme/song "Pizza Pizza Daddy O". My thanks also to the uploaders of these featured videos.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Viewer comments are welcome.

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"Let Your Backbone Slip" Phrase In R&B Music & Children's Rhymes

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part II of a two part series on the verse "Put your hand on your hips / and let your backbone slip" or "put your hands on your hips / and let your right foot slip".

Part II provides selected text excerpts & videos of the children's singing game "Little Sally Walker" and several R&B songs that include the "let your backbone slip" form of this verse. My guess is that "let your right foot slip" is a later version of the phrase "let your backbone slip".

Part I provides an overview of this featured verse and its performance movements.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/08/let-your-right-foot-slip-origin.html for Part I of this series.

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

FEATURED VIDEOS & TEXT EXCERPTS
[These videos are presented in chronological order. Notice that the studio dancers in these 1960s videos are all White. For the most part, their dance movements should not be considered the correct dance movements for those dance songs.]

Example #1: Major Lance - The Monkey Time




HeftynealPublished on Aug 7, 2012

Major Lance (4 April 1939, 1941 or 1942 -- 3 September 1994) was an American R&B singer. After a number of US hits in the 1960s, including "The Monkey Time" and "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um", In the 1970's he became an iconic UK figure among followers of Northern soul. Although he stopped making records in 1982, Major Lance continued to perform at concerts and tours until his death in 1994.
-snip-
TEXT EXCERPT: MONKEY TIME
(written by Curtis Mayfield)

Do the Monkey, yeah (do the Monkey Time)
Do the Monkey, yeah (do the Monkey Time)
Ah-twist them hips (twist them hips)
Let your backbone slip (let your backbone slip)
Now move your feet (move your feet)
Get on the beat (get on the beat)
Are you ready (are you ready)
Well, you get yours, cause-a I got mine
For the Monkey Time (Monkey Time)

Source: http://www.lyricstime.com/major-lance-monkey-time-lyrics.html

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Example #2: Little Sally Walker - Bessie Jones [Children's Singing Game]

Little Sally Walker Bessie Jones



ichagall | April 20, 2010
-snip-
This clip was filmed in the USA in 1970s or 1980s.

TEXT EXCERPT: LITTLE SALLY WALKER

Little Sally Walker
Sittin in a saucer
Rise, Sally , rise
Wipe your weeping eyes
Put your hand on your hip
And let your backbone slip
Oh, shake it to the East
Oh, shake it to the West
Oh, shake it to the one
that you love the best.

Editor:
This version of "Little Sally Walker" is from multiple sources including Step It Down edited by Bessie Jones & Bess Lomax Hawes.

Pianist/vocalist Billy Preston also recorded the song "Little Sally Walker" in 1965. Unfortunately, that YouTube video is private. The lyrics of that song are very similar to the text that is given above.

**
Version of the children's singing game "All Around The Kitchen" may contain the rhyming couplet "put your hands on your hip/and let your right foot slip". "All Around The Kitchen" was first collected in the 1940s in Alabama from African American children. Visit Part I of this series whose link is given above for a lyric excerpt & information about the performance activity that I've used for that game.

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Example #3: Jackie Wilson - Baby Workout (Shindig 1965)



moondancerfarm, Uploaded on Jul 23, 2011

-snip-
TEXT EXCERPT: BABY WORKOUT
(written by Jackie Wilson & Alonzo Tucker)

Now when you get out here
Don't you have no fear.
Put your hands on your hip
And let your backbone slip
And work out.

Source: http://www.metrolyrics.com/baby-workout-lyrics-jackie-wilson.html

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Example #4: Wilson Pickett - Land Of 1000 Dances - Live `66



Uploaded by charley trenn on Jun 19, 2009
-snip-
TEXT EXCERPT: LAND OF 1000 DANCES
(written and first recorded by Chris Kenner in 1962)

1-2-3
1-2-3
Ow! Uh! Alright! Uh!

Got to know how to pony
Like Bony Maronie
Mash potato, do the alligator
Put your hand on your hips, yeah
Let your backbone slip
Do the Watusi
Like my little Lucy
Hey! Uh!

Source: http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/thefullmonty/landof1000dances.htm

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Example #6: Otis Redding - Shake, 1966



Uploaded by jmannen77 on May 9, 2010

Posted by http://www.nostalgoteket.se From September 16, 1966 and the tv show Ready Steady Go!recorded in London, England.

"Shake" is a song written and recorded by Sam Cooke.
Otis Redding's version was elected to the "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll " by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

In 1966, the now cult '60s British pop show Ready Steady Goes Live, devoted a whole programme to a live performance of Soul singer Otis Redding, who regularly covered many of Cooke's songs. One of the highlights was a rousing version of "Shake" on which Redding was joined by British Soul legends Eric Burdon, lead singer of The Animals, and chart topper Chris Farlowe. The programme is acclaimed by many as the best episode of the whole series.
-snip-
TEXT EXCERPT - SHAKE
(written by Sam Cooke)

You move your body all around
And just shake
That's the way you do it
Shake, shake, shake it baby
Shake it like a bowl of soup
Let your body loop de loop
Put your hands on your hip
Come on and let your backbone slip
Move your body like your hip
And just shake!

Source: http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107859327854/

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND THANKS
Thanks to all the composers, vocalists, and musicians of these featured songs. Thanks also to the uploaders of these videos.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Viewer comments are welcome.

Read More

"Let Your Right Foot Slip" (Origin & Performance Instructions)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part I of a two part series on the verse "Put your hand on your hips/and let your right foot slip".

Part I provides an overview of this verse and its perhaps better known version that has the second line "and let your backbone slip".

Part II provides selected text excerpts & videos of the children's singing game "Little Sally Walker" and several R&B songs that include the "let your backbone slip" form of this floating verse.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/08/let-your-right-foot-slip-videos-text.html for Part II of this series.

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

OVERVIEW OF THE "LET YOUR BACKBONE SLIP" VERSE
"Put your hands on your hip/and let your backbone slip" is an instructional dance call. An instructional dance call is a spoken or sung line or rhyming verse which is given by a person to tell a group of dancers such as square dancers which series of dance movements they are to perform. In the context of this featured verse, the word "backbone" means "the spine". I believe that the verb "slip" means "move loosely" or "be flexible". The line "let your backbone slip" is thus interpreted to mean " shake your hips from side to side".

Possible Origins
I'm uncertain about the age of the verse "put your hands on your hips/and let your backbone slip" (and/or "let your right foot slip"), but these verses Black origin is certain. Notice below that a form of this verse was collected in the Caribbean in the children's singing game "Little Sally Walters".

In its essence, the featured verse is an instructional dance call. There is extensive documentation of pre and post civil war 19th century Black dance callers, fiddlers, and banjoist performing for White dances, or performing for Black dances. The first song included in Thomas W. Talley's now classic 1922 book Negro Folk Rhymes: Wise & Otherwise is the dance song "Jonah's Band Party". That song is made up of a series of dance calls including those found in this verse:
Setch a kickin' up san'
Jonah's Band!
Setch a kickin' up san'!
Jonah's Band!
"Han's up sixteen! Circle to the right!
We're going to get big eatin's here tonight".*

Thomas W. Talley's collection also includes the still relatively widely known Black dance songs "Juba" and "Jump Jim Crow".*

I'm not certain whether "put your hands on your hips/and let your backbone (or "your right foot") slip" was known in the 19th century. However, those rhyming couplets are certainly similar in form and function to those 19th century Black instructional calls.

*A complete online version of Talley's Negro Folk Rhymes is found at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27195/27195-h/27195-h.htm That version includes the full spelling of what is now known as "the n word". Click http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=123317 for a post that I started in 2009 on Mudcat Folk & Blues discussion forum. That post provides lyrics to various African American dance songs & other songs from Talley's book. That particular post also includes hyperlinks to other Mudcat posts which contain additional song lyrics from Talley's book Negro Folk Rhymes book. In that post, the lyrics to those songs don't include the fully spelled out "n word".

Floating Verses In Children's Singing Games
"Put your hands on your hip/and let your backbone slip" is a floating verse that is found in the widely known children's game song "Little Sally Walker" ("Little Sally Waters"). The verse "put your hands on your hips/ and let your right foot slip" is often part of the less widely known children's song "All Around The Kitchen Cock A Doodle Doodle Do". I'm not certain which version of the second line is the oldest.

From 1997-2006, I taught the follow the leader movement game "All Around The Kitchen" to children who were part of game song groups & game song special programming events that I facilitated in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. Click this page of my cocojams website http://cocojams.com/content/childrens-game-songs-and-movement-rhymes for the words I taught to this song as well as information about that song's early documentation, and information about the play activities that I used for that song.

A text excerpt & videos of "Little Sally Walker" children's singing games are found in Part II of this series.

Floating Verse In Commercially Recorded Songs
The "let your backbone slip" verse was lifted from the "Little Sally Walker" children's singing game & included in the mid 1960s African American Rhythm & Blues songs "Monkey Time (Major Lance -1963), "Baby Workout" (Jackie Wilson -1965), "Shake" (Sam Cooke & Otis Redding, 1966), and "Land Of 1000 Dances" (Wilson Pickett, 1966). Excerpts & videos of these songs are found in Part II of this series.

Other Black vocalists and White vocalists have recorded a number of R&B and Pop covers of these songs. This verse is also found in some Hip-Hop songs. For two examples of pop songs which were recorded by White vocalists that include this verse, click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTZgWWTlT7c for a video of the 1989 song "Resurrection Shuffle" by Tom Jones, and click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsL2u4J4MG0 for a video of the early 2000 Atom Kitten's song "Get Real".

How "Let Your Backbone Slip" & "Let Your Right Foot Slip" Are Performed
The song "Little Sally Waters" is included in the 1997 book Brown Girl In The Ring: An Anthology Of Songs Games From The Eastern Caribbean by Alan Lomax, J. D. Elder, and Bess Lomax Hawes. The title "Little Sally Waters" is an older form of the title "Little Sally Walker". In the above named book, that singing game includes the verse "put your hands on your hips, let your backbone shake". Part of the play instructions for that song which is given in that book indicate that the girl in the center of the ring selects a partner and "The two then put their hands on their hips and "shake their backbones" in the familiar Caribbean "winding" motion."
-snip-
In the United States, a 1970s video of Bessie Jones leading children & adults in singing & playing the game "Little Sally Walker" shows the person in the middle pantomining the words of that song. Part of that pantomine is for the person in the middle of the ring putting her (or his) hands on her hips & shaking her hips from side to side while the group sings the "put your hands on your hips & let your backbone slip" words.

In part because R&B & Pop dance songs focus on tunes more than words, I don't believe that most females dancing to songs in the 1960s & on that include this featured verse necessarily did anything different when (or if) they heard that verse. Videos of those dances (as found in Part II of this series) show most of the White studio dancers just continuing to do whatever dance moves they were doing before those lyrics were sung. Other videos show those dancers putting their hands on their hips and shaking their hips back & forth. I assume that hand on your hip/hip shaking movement is the what is "supposed to be done" for the words "let your backbone slip" - with "backbone" in this context meaning "spin" and "slip" in this context meaning "be flexible".

From 1997-2006 I taught the movement game "All Around The Kitchen" & other old & adapted African American game songs to groups of children & their adult & teen staff. (in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania & the surrounding area.) In so doing I used the second line "let your right foot slip" instead of the line "let your backbone slip". I'm not sure how I learned this version, but I'm reasonably sure that I didn't make it up myself. I also taught those groups the following movements to do for those lyric:
(All movements are performed to the beat while standing in place)
1.Put your hands on your hips when that line is sung
1. On the word "let" - extend your right foot toe pointing in front of you

2. On the word "your" - place your foot directly in back of your position

3. On the words "right foot" - point your right foot in front of you

4. On the word "slip" - return your right foot flat next to your left foot
-snip-
This may be the "traditional" way that "let your right foot slip" was/is performed. Or it may be a dance routine that I observed somewhere & made my own. I'm not a dancer or a choreographer so it's unlikely that I made up this routine by myself.

If anyone has any information or an opinion about the dance movement that I use to "let your right foot slip", please share it with me & other pancocojams readers.

Variant Form Of "Little Sally Walker"
As an aside, my sense is that since at least the 1960s, the version of "Little Sally Walker" which contains the "put your hand on your hips/and let your backbone slip" verse isn't well known among either African American (particularly African Americans outside the South) And since at least the early 2000s, an updated version of this rhyme which I call "Little Sally Walker Walking Down The Street" appears to be much more popular in the United States than any other version of that game song. I believe that this updated version originated among African American children & then spread to other American children and also to teens, and young adults where it is used as a stress reducing group activity.
Click http://cocojams.com/content/childrens-game-songs-and-movement-rhymes for words & videos of "Little Sally Walker Walking Down The Street".

That same page includes the words to versions of "Little Sally Walker ("Little Sally Waters" and similar singing games), as well as the words to & videos of other English language children's movement songs.

RELATED LINK
http://lyrics.filestube.com/look_for.html?q=let+your+backbone+slip&mode=3&page=1 This is page #1 of 3 pages of lyric excerpts of songs that include the lines "put your hand on your hip & let your backbone slip".

**
Click http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=104001#2125148 for information about the early collection & publication of the children's song "All Around The Kitchen".

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & THANKS
My thanks to the unknown composers of the children's playground songs that include this featured verse. Thanks also to the composers of R&B songs that include this verse. Thanks also to those whose comments I quoted or provided links to.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Viewer comments are welcome.

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The Evolution Of The Game Song "Sissy In The Barn"

Edited by Azizi Powell

[Update 12/2/2012]

This post presents lyrics, performance instructions, and comments about the singing game "Sissy In The Barn" ("Sissy In De Barn").

Brief sound files of "Sissy In The Barn" ("Sissy In De Barn" are included in this post. Unfortunately, to date, I've not been able to locate an online video of this singing game.

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

All rights to this material remain with their owners.

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GENERAL OVERVIEW
Bessie Jones, African American performer, folklorist, and co-author of Step It Down, a collection & study of African American children's singing games in the Georgia Sea Islands, described singing games as forms of dramatized play. During that dramatized play, children take on the role of certain characters and sing & act out the words of those characters. "Sissy In The Barn" is a good example of African American children's game song as a theatrical play. Read the performance instructions for Example #2 for a great example of this singing game as theatrical play.

The earliest date that I've found thus far for the game song "Sissy In The Barn" (under the name "Little Sister Won't You Marry Me") is 1922. That example is included in Thomas W. Talley's book Negro Folk Rhymes: Wise And Otherwise posted online at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27195/27195-h/27195-h.htm

A 1937 version of this song can be found at http://www.loc.gov/folklife/guides/Children.html AFS 884B4-886B3: Eight songs sung by older children. Brandon, Mississippi, March 9, 1937.
886A3: "Sissy In The Barn". I believe this version is the same as that given as Example #1.

Notice that the version of "Sissy In The Barn" that is given below as Example #8 is included on a 1978 recording of Caribbean songs & games and ascribed to Trinidad. To date, I've not found any other indication that "Sissy In The Barn" is of Caribbean origin. If that ascription is correct, my guess is that someone in Trinidad either learned this song by visiting the United States South or by having contact with someone in the United States South.

For explanations of various words found in versions of "Sissy In The Barn", read my comments in the section below entitled "Word Meanings".

FEATURED EXAMPLES
[Posted in chronological order]

Example #1: LITTLE SISTER, WON'T YOU MARRY ME?
Liddle sistah in de barn, jine de weddin'.
Youse de sweetest liddle couple dat I ever did see.
Oh Love! Love! Ahms all 'round me!
Say, liddle sistah, won't you marry me?

Oh step back, gal, an' don't you come a nigh me,
Wid all dem sassy words dat you say to me.
Oh Love! Love! Ahms all 'roun' me!
Oh liddle sistah, won't you marry me?

From: Negro Folk Rhymes, Wise and Otherwise: With a Study
Author: Thomas W. Talley; originally published in 1922
E-book edition: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27195/27195-h/27195-h.htm

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Example #2: Sissy In The Barn; Eva Grace Boone
From the Album Field Recordings Vol. 4: Mississippi & Alabama (1934-1942)[Sound file/MP3 Download]; [1937]?

SISSY IN THE BARN*
Sissy in the barn, barn the levee**
Prettiest little couple I ever did see,
Oh bon bon***, put your arms around me,
Say little sissy, won't you marry me?

Oh step back now, don't you come near me,
All those sassy things you say
Oh bon bon***, put your arms around me,
Say little sissy, won't you marry me?

From http://www.amazon.com/Sissy-In-The-Barn/dp/B000V978MI

*Transcription by Azizi Powell from the sound file whose link is given above.

**This word might be "de lairy".

***These words might be "barn barn".

****
Example #3: field recording (Julia Griffin and group; Women's Dormitory; State Penitentiary, Raiford, Florida; June 4, 1939; collected & recorded by Alan Lomax & Ruby T. Lomax)

SISSY IN DE BARN
Sissy in de barn, join de wedding
Prettiest little couple I ever did see,
Oh, bye-an'-bye put yo' arms around me
Says, little sissy, won't you marry me.

Oh, step back, gal, don't you come near me,
All those sassy words you say
Bye-an'-bye, throw yo' arms around me
Pretty little sissy, won't you marry me.

From http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.afc.afcss39.2718b3/default.html

These singers were African American women.

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Example #4: Altona Trent Johns Play Songs Of The Deep South (The Associated Publishers, Inc.; 1st edition; 1944)

Pancocojams Editor's comment:

Altona Trent Johns' book includes two versions of "Bon Ton or Sissy In De Barn" (pages 1-5) Two of these pages are drawings. One drawing shows Black girls & Black boys outdoors forming a circle [with the children not holding hands] and a girl & boy in the center of the circle. The other drawing shows a Black girl and Black boy outdoors dancing the two step [with no other children in the drawing.] A piano score is provided for the first "arrangement" of this song. The words to the second arrangement of "Bon Ton" are given within a piano score.

Here's the lyrics and directions from that book:

BON TON or SISSY IN DE BARN
Sissy in de barn,
O jine de weddin'
Sweetes' li'l' couple I e'er did see,
O Bon Ton, put yo' arms around me!
Say, Ii'l' Sissy, Won't you marry me?

Get back, gal.
Get yo' arms from 'round me!
All those sassy words you say,
O Bon Ton, put yo' arms around me!
Say, Ii'l' Sissy, Won't you marry me?

Get back, boy,
Don't put yo' arms around me!
All those foolin' words you say,
O Bon Ton, put yo' arms around me!
Say, 'li'l' Sissy, Won't you marry me?

"Sissy" is affectionate for "little Sister" [This is the author's statement and her performance directions follow.]

Directions
Any number may participate. The players form a large circle with a boy in the center.
They clap hands on each beat throughout as they swing.
1. Boy in center advances in short, skip-like steps to a girl in the circle and stops in front of her on the words, "li'l' couple".
2. He catches girl's right hand in his.
3. They take position for social dancing.
4. They move to center and dance the "two step" inside the circle.
5. Pushes girl gently from him
6. Shakes finger in mock anger at girl, meanwhile skipping back to her.
7. Same as (2)
8. Same as (3)
9. Same as (4)
10. Reverse (5), i.e. girl pushes boy from her.
11. Reverse (6)
12. Use steps (2), (3), and (4) again.
13. At the conclusion of the above directions this girl and boy join the ring, some other boy goes to center and the dance is begun again.

This should be sung and danced gaily and not dragged out.

-snip-
BON TON
"This second arrangement of "Bon Ton" can be played by more advanced pianists. It would provide a more colorful and more difficult accompaniment for the dance and could also be used as a piano solo".

-snip-
Altona Trent Johns provides more information provided about how the piano solo is played. The lyrics are the same as above.

Notice that this song is performed by a co-ed group of children (females & males). I believe this is the earliest way this courting game song was played.

****
Example #5: The Archive Of Folk Song;
B. A. Botkin [prior to 1950]
From
http://www.loc.gov/folklife/LP/PlayandDanceL9_opt.pdf

SISSY IN THE BARN
Sissy in the barn, the levee
Prettiest little couple I ever did see,
Oh barn, barn, put your arms around me,
Say little sissy, won't you marry me?

Step back now, don't you come near me,
All those sassy things you say
Oh barn, barn, put your arms around me,
Say little sissy, won't you marry me?

-snip-
Folk Music Of The United States
Music Division
Recording Laboratory AFS 19
Library of Congress, Washington [No date is given for this recording. However it must be 1950 or earlier as the cover art for the album is documented to have been donated in 1950.]

There are no collector's notes or performance instructions are given for this example.

****
Example #6: Carver Elementary School
Recorded: May 6, 1954

From http://www.floridamemory.com/audio/cd1.php 1954 Florida Folk Festival White Springs, Florida
(S 1576, reel T76-1).

Sissy in the barn barn a lairy
pretty little sissy I ever did see
Oh bon bon, throw your arms all around me
little sissy won’t you marry me.

Oh step back sissy, don’t you come near me
all those sassy words you say
Oh bon bon, throw your arms all around me
little sissy won’t you marry me.

[both verses repeated]

-snip-
Transcription by Azizi Powell from the download/sound file given as #15 on that list. This rendition is performed with the children clapping their hands and either stomping their feet while standing or the sounds of their feet while they move around.

Although the race of the children isn't noted, they are probably African American as "Carver Elementary School" was probably named after the African American scientist/inventer George Washington Carver.

****
Example #7: Folkways 07858, Songs for Children from New York City (1978)

SISSY IN DE BARN
Sissy in de barn, de barn de leary.
Prettiest little gal I ever did see.
Oh barn, barn put your arms around me.
Say pretty sissy won't you marry me.
Oh step back gal*, don't you come near me.
All those sassy words you say.
Oh barn, barn put your arms around me.
Say pretty sissy won't you marry me.

The children circle holding hands during the first part of the game. The child in the middle picks a partner and dances with him. The partner rejects the child with exaggerated movements on "step back gal." They reconcile and dance again at the end. The partner now becomes the new "Sissy."

-snip-
* "Oh step back gal" is spoken.

Collected by Alan Lomax from African American children.

Posted by Joe Offer on 14 Jul 09 - 01:59 PM on http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=122276 "lyr/info req: Sissy/Missy in the barn... (Bon Ton)"

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Example #8: Caribbean Songs And Games: Puerto Rico, Haiti, Trinidad, Jamaica, The Bronx, 1978 [Trinidad]

SISSY IN THE BARN
Sissy in the barn the barn de lerie
Sissy in the cupboard, the cupboard we'll see,
Oh by and by, I'm the one who
Say little Sissy won't you marry me.
Just step back girl
Don't come near me
Say little Sissy won't you marry me.


The children are in a circle with "Sissy" in the middle. She chooses a partner on "Oh barn." On "step back," she pushes the partner from her, points her finger and shakes her hip. They reconcile at the end and she leaves her partner (usually a boy) in the middle of the circle to start again.

-snip-
http://media.smithsonianfolkways.org/liner_notes/folkways/FW07856.pdf Band 3A
Folkways Records Album No FC 5856
Copyright 1978 Folkways Record
Recorded and annotated by Edna Smith Edet

-snip-
Notice that this example is the only one presented which doesn't include the line "All those sassy things you say".

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MEANINGS OF CERTAIN WORDS IN THIS SINGING GAME
Here is a list of words from the game song "Sissy In The Barn" whose meanings may be unclear. Many of these featured words help document the evolution of that song over a period of time. The changes in these lyrics are probably a result of folk etymology - mishearing or misremembering words, or unknowingly replacing an unfamiliar word, phrase, or sound with a familiar word, phrase or sound. Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_etymology for more information about "folk etymology".

"Sissy"
"Sissy" is an affectionate nickname for females, from the word "sister". This nickname is used by family members and non-family members regardless of the females' personal name.

The Caribbean game song "In A Fine Castle" which includes the repeated line "do you hear my sisi-o" is another example of a game song that includes this meaning of the nickname "Sissy". Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/08/two-examples-of-caribbean-game-song-in.html and http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/08/example-of-in-fine-castle-brown-girl-in.html for pancocojams posts about the song "In A Fine Castle".

A somewhat familiar use of the nickname "Sissy" is Anglo-American actress "Sissy Spacek".

The song title "Sissy In The Barn" simply describes where the young woman called "Sissy" is. The title "Missy In The Barn" given in the Mudcat discussion forum link above is probably a misremembering of the title by the person seeking information about that song.
**
"De" - "the"
**
"O'lairy, "o'leary"; "de lerie"
"O'lairy" and similarly spelled words are forms of a phrase found in English language children's playground rhymes from at least the mid twentieth century on. Here's an excerpt from a Mudcat discussion forum post which includes a rhyme with the word "o'lairy" and which provides information about the source & meaning of the word "o'lairy":
"Chicago, early 1940s:

One, two, three a'leary,
Four, five, six a'leary,
Seven, eight, nine a'leary,
Ten a'leary, USA!...

[Folk singer] Jean Redpath pointed out, as she was doing one of these ball-bouncing/leg-cross-over games, that there is a line in [the British folk song] Piers Plowman about beggars sitting at the city gate, "Legs aleery." I'm not sure of the spelling, but the meaning was clear: they had their legs crossed, i.e.: sitting in what we call "Indian fashion." In the game, of course, the player crosses her leg (this is usually considered a girl's game) over the bouncing ball."
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=11034 Jazz Lyric '1 2 3 O'Lairy' - Count Basie 1940; posted by Sandy Paton; 19 May 99 -10:08 PM
-snip-
According to this information quoted by Sandy Paton, "o'lairy" pronounced "oh-LEER-ree"] means "legs crossed". Traditionally, when children bouncing a ball say the word "o'lairy" as part of a rhyme, they were supposed to raise one leg and bounce the ball under that leg. Or when children playing jump rope (skipping rope) say "o'lairy", they were supposed to cross their legs. Nowadays, in the United States, that movement is called jumping "criss cross".

However, I don't mean to imply that children singing "Sissy In The Barn" crossed their legs when they sang the words "o'leary". Actually, I believe that they probably did no such thing. In my opinion, the traditional meaning of the word "o'lairy" became largely unknown to children in the United States, if not elsewhere, decades ago. Children sang or recited "o'lairy" because it was/is a part of a rhyme or song, but they didn't/don't attach any particular meaning to it.

My opinion is that children started singing "o'leary" at the end of that line in "Sissy In The Barn" because they were familiar with the "o'leary" at the end of lines of text in children's rhymes & game songs. The "jine the wedding" with its outdated word "jine" was eventually dropped and was replaced by the words "de barn o'lairy" ["the barn o'lairy"] ["Sissy in the barn the barn o'lairy"].

Also notice how the words "o'lairy" [and similar sounding forms] were changed in Example #4 to the words "the levee". A levee is "an embankment built to prevent the overflow of a river." http://www.thefreedictionary.com/levee

In addition, it should be noted [no pun intended] that the words "the barn o' lairy" has five beats while the words "jine the weeding" has four beats. Yet Black children would have no difficulty whatsoever elongating the word "wedding" to make the words "the barn o'lairy" substitute for those earlier words.
**
"Bon Ton" and "Bye and Bye"
Example #3 of "Sissy In The Barn" posted above gives "Bon Ton" as the alternate title for that song.

"Oh bye and bye" in the line "Oh, bye-an'-bye put yo' arms around me" may have been an unintential folk etymology replacement for the words "bon ton".
"Bye and bye" means "eventually". In my opinion, that meaning doesn't fit the theme of the song as well as the meaning for the words "bon ton".

In the lyrics "O Bon Ton ["oh bon bon"] put your arms all around me", bon ton [bon bon] is similar to the affectionate terms "my sweetie, "my honey" or "my dearest one". However, "bon ton" also carries a connotation of a person with high fashion & sophistication.

From http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bon+ton

a. A sophisticated manner or style. b. The proper thing to do. 2. High society. [French : bon, good + ton, tone.] bon ton (French) [bɔ̃ tɔ̃]. n Literary. 1. sophisticated ...

The Zydeco song "Bon Ton Roulet" is a somewhat familiar use of the words "bon ton". According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bon_Ton_Roula

"bon ton roulet" ("bon ton roula") is a phonetical approximation of "bons temps rouler", Louisiana Creole French for "good times roll" as in "Laissez les bons temps rouler" or "Let the good times roll", an unofficial slogan for New Orleans and the Mardi Gras celebration.

**
"Jine" - "join"
**
"Yo'" = "your"
**
"Sassy"
In the context of the line "all those sassy words you say", "sassy" means "improperly forward or bold".

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sassy

Also, click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/09/changing-meanings-of-being-sassy.html for my comments about the changing meaning of "sassy".

-snip-
ADDITIONAL EXAMPLES OF FOLK ETYMOLOGY
Example #6 as found above, gives the line "Sissy in the cupboard the cupboard we’ll see". This line is an obvious folk etymology form. The word "cupboard" may have been used since a cupboard may have been more familiar to those children then a barn. The ending words "we'll see" may have been a folk etymology replacement for the words "the levee".

Comparing it with the other presented examples, this line in Example #7 "Oh by and by, I'm the one who" seems like it is incomplete.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND THANKS
Thanks to all those who have shared examples of this song in records, books, blogs, and otherwise.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Viewer comments are welcome.

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