406. Massa Had a Yaller Gal
[This song is related to Cindy (See Brown 404; Version F) but lacks the Cindy chorus and is made of floating minstrel lyrics. As mentioned in Brown (below) the older song is title "The Gal from the South."]
406. Massa Had a Yaller Gal
An early form of this song is " "The Gal from the South,' stmt;- By Dan Bryant," in Complete Bryant's Songs and Programme for One Year '(New York, 1859). H, 9-10. White, in ANFS 152-3, 450, traces 'Massa Had a Yaller Gal' to other minstrel songbooks of the 1850s, giving references and printing a numher of texts, mostly from Alahama. See also Scarborough TNFS 66-8, with versions from Louisiana, South Carolina, and Kentucky (the last with music).
A. 'Massa Bought a Yaller Gal.' From C. L. Walker, address unknown; not dated.
Massa bought a yellow gal,
Bought her from the south.
Her neck so long and skinny
She couldn't close her mouth.
He sent her to the blacksmith shop
To have her mouth made small.
She fell in love with the blacksmith
And swallowed the shop and all.
B. 'Marster Had a Yaller Gal.' From an anonoymous contributor; not dated. Dr. White notes: "The incomplete first stanza is probably intrusive. Most of the rest is from the antebellum minstrels." Cf. 'The Derby Ram,' Vol. H, No. 176, p. 436, and 'Lynchliurg Town,' No. 415, below.
1. His name was Peter Brown.
Every tooth within his head
Was a mile and a quarter round.
2 Marster had a yaller gal,
He brought her from the South;
Her hair was wrapped so very tight
She couldn't shut her mouth.
3. I went to see her the other night;
She met me at the door.
Shoes and stockings in her hand,
Feet all over the floor.
4. I went down to New Orleans,
I did not go to stay;
I fell in love with a pretty little gal
And she in love with me.
5. I wish I was in Tennessee
A-sittin' in my chair.
One arm round a whiskey keg,
'Tother round my dear.
6. If I had a scolding wife
I'd beat her shore's you're born;
I'd take her down to New Orleans
And trade her off for corn.
C. 'She's My Yaller Gal,' with music. From J. D. Johnson, Jr., Trinity College student (from Garland, Sampson county), December 5, 1919 — "Sung to banjo by an old Negro in Eastern North Carolina." White prints the same song, with minor differences and without music, in ANFS 324.
She's my yaller gal,
I brought her from the South.
Took her down to the blacksmith shop,
To have her mouth made small.
And bless you soul she opened her mouth
And swallowed that shop and all.
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406. Massa Had a Yaller Gal (Music)
'She's My Yaller Gal.' Sung by J. D. Johnson, Trinity College, Durham, in 1919 or 1920. The interesting point in this melody is that it must prove very disappointing to such scholars as believe that the musical rhyme must always conform to that of the text. Here we see again that it does not. The tune will prove that. For additional textual versions cf. APPS 257; FSSH
436; JAFL XLV 170.
F-378
She's my yal - ler gal,
I brought her from the South.
Took her down to the black-smith shop
To have her mouth made small;
But, bless you soul she o-pened her mouth
And swal - lowed that shop and all.
Scale: Hexatonic (2), plagal. Tonal Center: b-flat. Structure: abc (4,4.4) The tonal center is the highest tone. To this editor, our song seems to reflect vaudeville influence.