414. Jim Crack Corn

414
Jim Crack Corn

This is one of the best-known of tlie nigger-niinstrel songs of
the last century, and has become more or less a traditional song.
See Mrs. Steely 165 (1935). Miss Scarborough (TNFS 201-3)
reports a text from Virginia almost identical with our A text. In
this form it is also known as 'The Blue-Tail Fly.' But the tune
and the chorus, very singable, have attracted fragments of other
songs so that sometimes — as in texts C. D, E below — only the
chorus of the original song is left. Alfred Williams in FSU^T 178
gives a text which he says was "popular about the Thames Valley."

 

'Jim Crack Corn.' Contributed by K. P. Lewis of Durham in 191 5. It
lacks the opening stanza of the version mentioned in the headnote above,
and adds an alien stanza — but one quite famihar in other connections —
at the end.

1 Den arter dinner massa sleep.
He hid dis nigger vigil keep ;

And when he gwine to shut his eye
He tell me watch the hlue-tailed fly.

Chorus:

Jim crack corn, 1 don't care,
Jim crack corn, I don't care,
Jim crack corn, I don't care,
Old massa's gone away.^

2 \\ hen he rides in the artcrnoon

I follow him with a hickory hroom.

The pony being very shy

When bitten by the hlue-tailed fly.

' In tlic manuscript tlie chorus is indicated only by the first three
words ; doubtless as being to(j well known to need writing out in full.

 

li L A C K F A C !•: M 1 N S T R K I, , N E c; K SONGS 497

One day lie ride an inn' the farm,
The flies so nnnierons they did swarm.
One chanced to bite him on the thij^h:
"The dickens take that hhie-tailed fly!"

Tlie pony he reared and he jnmped and he ])itch,
And he flung old master in the ditch.
The jury came and wondered why.
The verdict was : "The blue-tailed fly.'

They l)uried him under a 'simmon tree,
His epitaph is there to see:
'Here lies I, all forced to die
By the bite of a blue-tailed fly.'

Ole massar's dead and gone to rest.
They say all things is for the best.
I never shal forget till the day I die
Ole massa and the blue-tailed fly.

De hornet gets in eyes and nose,

De skeeter bites you through de clothes,

De gallinipper flies up high ;

But wusser yet, the blue-tailed fly.

 

'Jim Crack Corn.' From Miss Amy Henderson of Worry, Burke
comity. The same as A except that it has the proper initial stanza :

\\ hen I was young I tised to wait
On massa and hand him de plate,
Pass down de bottle when he get dry,
And brush awav de blue-tail flv.

 

'I Wish I Had a Great Big House.' Contributed by Miss Monta
Adams, Durham, in 1922. Here there is nothing but the chorus left
of the original song. The "chicken pie" stanza appears in various con-
nections. For the second stanza see the 'I Wouldn't Marry' songs,
No. 17.

I I wish I had a great big house
Sixteen stories high
And every story in that house
Was filled with chicken pie.

Clionis:

Jim crack corn, I don't care.
Jim crack corn, I don't care,
Mv master's yone awav.

 

498 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

2 I wouldn't marry an old maid ;
I'll tell you the reason why :
Her neck's so long and skinny
I'm scared she'd never die.

D

'Jim Crack Corn.' Contributed by Lida Page, Durham county. Here
again only the chorus is left of the original song; the other two stanzas
occur fre(|uc'ntly in Negri) song. See No. 194, above.

1 Possum up a 'simmon tree
Looking cunningly at me.

ricked up a l)rick and hit him on the chin ;
Said he, '( )ld fellow, don't you do that again.'

C/ionts ( as in C) :

2 Folks that live on hshing creek
Grow from ten to eleven feet.
Go to bed, it is no use ;

Their feet stick out for the chickens' roost.

E

'Jim Crack Corn." Reported by Mrs. Nilla Lancaster of Wayne county.
Only the familiar chorus and a single stanza :

I went to the hen house on my knees
Just to hear the gobbler sneeze.
It was only a rooster sayin' his prayers,
Singiu' a hymn to the hens upstairs.