672 Negro Song
'Negro Song.' Sung by Miss Jewell Robbins, Pekin, Montgomery county, 1921-22. The singer used the same tune, with negligible variations for her version of 'I Got a Girl' (F-413). At the time when this editor was occupied with the transcription of all the tunes not all of the text could be understood and the singer, then Mrs. C. P. Perdue of Gastonia, when asked about it
could recall no more of the words. Later on, having lost her husband, she moved to 13 Charlton Drive, Hampton, Va., and this editor on July 7, 1958, received a letter from her giving the additional text found below.
F-571
Let's sing
What you gon do
Tie a - round a string.
For melodic relationship cf. TNFS 156, second half of measure two.
Scale: Heptachordal, plagal. Tonal Center: f. Structure: abcb (2,2,2,2) =: ab (4,4). In this latter subdivision, the endings of both phrases are the same. Every phrase cadences on L Text supplied by singer :
Sing, sing, what you gon'er sing?
Doodle bug, doodle bug, tied on a string.