9B. Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss Roud 5720 ("Fare You Well my Pretty Little Miss," "Fare You Well, My Blue-Eyed Girl" "That Blue-Eyed Girl," "Daisy" "Western Country," "Susanna Gal," "Fly Around My Pretty Little Pink (Tennessee Ernie Ford- 1959)," "Betty Anne," "Way Down Yonder (Wheevily Wheat B)," "Your Blue Eyes Drive Me Crazy," "Pretty Little Pink," "I'm Going To Georgia," "My Pretty Little Miss," "Little Betty Ann")
A. "Daisy," a two stanza fragment from The Journal of American Folk-lore, 1892 as taken from Lila W. Edmands' article, "Songs From the Mountains of North Carolina."
B. "That Blue-Eyed Girl." Sung by Fletch Rymer, a banjo-picker, in "The Beats" near the mouth of Newfound Creek in Buncombe county. Collected by Lunsford in 1898 and published in Brown Collection of NC Folklore, Volume 3, 1952.
C. [Shady Grove, B]. No title given, listed as Shady Grove B; from Kentucky; mountain whites; MS. of Mr. House; 1905. From E.C. Perrow, Songs and Rhymes from the South; The Journal of American Folklore, 1916.
D. "Way Down Yonder (Wheevily Wheat B)" collected by Miss Mary S. Brown of Gatesville, Texas, from Wallace Fogle, a famous play-party singer of Coryell County; from "Round the Levee" edited by Stith Thompson, 1916.
E. "Betty Anne" sung by Mrs. Ellie Johnson, NC, dated 1916, collected Cecil Sharp and published in his English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, 1917.
F. "Fly around, my blue-eyed miss." Reported by I. G. Greer from the singing of Mrs. N. J. Herring of Tomahawk, Sampson county. Highly composite. My date, title, from Brown Collection of NC Folklore, Volume 3, 1952.
G. "Daisy." Communicated by Mildred Peterson of Bladen county, probably in 1923, from the Brown Collection on NC Folklore, volume 3, version A of Coffee Grows. Cf. 1893 version in JOAFL.
H. "Western Country"- Sung and played by Henry Whitter, of Virginia (harmonica, guitar and vocal). From the Okeh recording No. 40077 made April, 1924.
I. "Blue-Eyed Girl," by fiddler Charlie Bowman and The Hillbillies of Virginia, January 1926, NYC. From Vocallion recording No. 5017.
J. "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss." From the Columbia recording 15210-D made by Frank Blevins and His Tar Heel Rattlers on November 8, 1927.
K. "Your Blue Eyes Drive Me Crazy." From Victor recording 21645 dated August 5, 1927 by West Virginia Coon Hunters for Ralph Peer at Victor Records "Bristol Sessions."
L. "Susanna Gal." From Victor recording 21130 recorded at Bristol session August 3, 1927 by Dad Blackard's Moonshiners. The Blackard and Shelor families were well known singing families in the early 1900s.
M. "Fly Around my Pretty Little Miss," From the Columbia recording 15709-D made October, 1928 in Atlanta, Georgia. This was a duo fiddle version with six stanzas and a floating chorus was made by the Atlanta, Georgia string band, The Skillet Lickers with Riley Puckett on guitar and vocals along with a Clayton McMichen and Gid Tanner on fiddle.
N. "I'm Going To Georgia." From the Victor recording 21645 B by Tenneva Ramblers in Atlanta, GA on Saturday, February 18, 1928. The Tenneva (from Tenn and Va) were Jack Pierce,f; Jack Grant, bj-md; Claude Slagle, bj; Claude Grant, g/v. They backed Jimmie Rodgers briefly and also recorded as Grant Brothers.
O. "Pretty Little Pink." From the Supertone recording 9666 by Bradley Kincaid at Richmond, Indiana, October 1929. Adapted from Sharp's "Betty Anne" published in 1917 (EFSSA), Kincaid created this "Pretty Little Pink" composite. He published another similar version with the "Wheevily Wheat" stanzas in his "Favorite Old-Time Songs and Mountain Ballads," book 2, 1929, p. 16-17.
P. "My Pretty Little Miss" no informant named From William Owens' 1936 book "Swing and Turn: Texas Play-Party Songs."
Q. "Oh, Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss." Sung with banjo by O. L. Coffey of Shulls Mills, N. C. Recorded at Blowing Rock, N. C., 1936, by John A. Lomax; "Play and Dance Songs and Tunes" AFS L9 - Library of Congress.
R. "Fly Around My Blue-Eyed Girl," sung by Theophilus G. Hoskins of Leslie (Hyden, KY) on 10-14, 1937. From Kentucky Alan Lomax Recordings, 1937-1942.
S. "Fare You Well, My Blue-Eyed Girl," sung by Justus Begley of Perry (Hazard County), Kentucky on 10-17, 1937. From Kentucky Alan Lomax Recordings, 1937-1942.
T. "Shady Grove," no informant named, collected Edna Lucille Miller in Watauga County, North Carolina; from Miller, A Study of Folklore in Watauga County, North Carolina (1938).
U. "Fly Around my Blue Eyed Girl" No title. Collected from James York, Olin, Iredell county, in August 1939. From Brown Collection of NC Folklore, Volume 3, 1952, version B.
V. "Fly Around my Pretty Little Miss." Contributed in 1939 by Otis Kuykendall of Asheville. From Brown Collection of NC Folklore, Volume 3, 1952, version C.
W. "Blue-Eyed Girl," sung by Rufus Crisp of Allen KY, with banjo. From a 1946 recording titled Rufus Crisp on Folkways Records FA 2342 released in 1972.
X. "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss," sung banjoist George Pegram of Oak Ridge, and harp player Red Parham of Leicester, NC, recorded in Swannanoa NC, 1946; Digital Appalachia recording.
Y. "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss," banjo and vocal by Lee Sexton, c. 1948. From the Smithsonian Folkways album. Mountain Music of Kentucky. Lee Sexton was born in 1928 in Letcher County, Kentucky.
Z. "My Blue-Eyed Girl," sung by Lawrence Eller of Upper Hightower, Georgia as recorded by Art Rosenbaum, December, 1977.My date, from the Art Of Field Recording Volume 1.
AA. "Blue-eyed Girl," sung by Jim Couch of Harlan, Kentucky collected by Leonard Roberts, 1954. From Roberts, "Sang Branch Settlers," p.168.
BB. "Fly Around my Blue-Eyed Girl," played on piano and sung by Hobart Smith of Saltville, VA in August, 1959. From Virginia Traditions: Blue Ridge Piano Styles, 1981.
CC. "Fly Around My Pretty Little Pink," sung by Tennessee Ernie Ford.. From the album "Gather ground," 1959.
DD. "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss," sung by Frank Proffitt, c. 1959; from Warner Collection, Vol. 2: Nothing Seems Better to Me - The Music of Frank Proffitt and North Carolina.
EE. "Pretty Little Pink,"- sung by Clint Howard of Mountain City, Tennessee, from "Old timey concert" dated 1967, recorded in Seattle, WA, with Doc Watson and Clint Howard, lead vocal guitar, Fred Price, fiddle; also Original Folkways Recordings of Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley, 1960-1962.
FF. "Fly Around My Pretty Little Pink," sung by Manuel Dewey (known as Old Joe Clark) about 1961. From "Ark" Records of Cincinnati, Ohio, 45-EP229 CP 8570.
GG. "Fly Around," sung w/banjo by Sheila Kay Adams of Madison, NC on September 6, 1976 at Swannanoa, NC. From Digital Appalachia; http://dla.acaweb.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/Warren/id/1663/rec/22
HH. "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss," sung by Peter Gott of Sodom Laurel, North Carolina, Feb. 19, 1977. From Digital Appalachia: http://dla.acaweb.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/Warren/id/1240/rec/1
II. "Fly Around my Little Betty Ann," sung by Cas Wallin of Sodom Laurel, NC in 1979. From Digital Appalachia: http://dla.acaweb.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/Warren/id/2061/rec/3
JJ. "Little Betty Ann." Sung by Dellie Norton at her home in Sodom Laurel, Madison County, NC, 29.8.80. From Yates: Musical Traditions MTCD 324 ('Far in the Mountains 4').
KK. "Little Betty Ann." Sung by Inez Chandler at her home in Marshall, Madison County, NC, 28.8.80. From Yates: Musical Traditions MTCD 324 ('Far in the Mountains 4').
LL. "Fly Around My Blue Eyed Girl," played and sung by Ballard “Pappy” Taylor from Kentucky with Tommy Taylor guitar, 1989. Digital Appalachia: http://dla.acaweb.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/berea/id/4984/rec/17
* * * *
["Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss" is an southern American play-party song, fiddle tune and dance song that was known in the 1800s and became popular in the 1920s as a fiddle and instrumental tune. After careful examination, it appears that stanzas of 9B. Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss (hereafter, "Fly Around"), are similar to, or derived from 9. Seventeen Come Sunday and that the identifying stanza "Fly Around" likely originated from the first lines of the Scottish ending stanza of "Seventeen" found in the "Waukrife Mammy" variants:
O, fare-thee-well, my bonnie, bonnie lass,
O, fare-thee-well, my honey[1],
It's equally clear that "fly around" is simply a substitute for "fare-thee-well (fare-you-well)." An adaption of the Scottish "Fare-thee- well" verse is found in The Skillet Lickers' 1928 version[2] of "Fly Around" on Old-Time Fiddle Tunes and Songs from North Georgia County CD-3509:
Fare-you-well my pretty little miss,
Fare-you-well my honey.
If I'm not there by the middle of the week,
You can look for me on Sunday.
In this stanza not only are the opening lines duplicated almost exactly but the Sunday from "Seventeen Come Sunday" is also borrowed. In William Owens' 1936 book "Swing and Turn: Texas Play-Party Songs," the words "come along" have been substituted:
Oh, come along, my pretty little Miss,
Oh, come along, my honey,
Oh, come along, my pretty little Miss,
I'll marry you next Sunday.
Both examples show the evolution of the Scottish stanza in the US where it has become a play-party song, dance song and fiddle tune. Both examples are clearly based on "Seventeen" and in the next evolution a new line is added:
Fly around my pretty little miss,
Fly around my daisy--
The second line is the "standard" text found in most versions and it appears: "Fly around/Fare-you well my daisy." Another "Fly Around" song by Justus Begley in 1937 is titled "Fare You Well, My Blue-Eyed Girl" and has:
Fare you well my blue-eyed girl,
Fare you well my daisy,
See also the identical first two lines of the chorus from Rufus Crisp of Allen KY, 1946:
Fare you well, my blue-eyed girl,
Fare you well, my daisy,
Both Begley and Crisp are from Kentucky and sing uptempo versions accompanied by their banjos. The "Fare-you-well" opening is similar to the Scottish stanza which would have been brought from the area of the Virginia Colony along the Jame River basin into the Appalachians sometime after the Revolutionary War. Many of the isolated areas along the Appalachians and Cumberland Mountain range to the southeast were established in the late 1700s.
Although "Fly Around" is known as a southern breakdown, its antecedent, "Seventeen Come Sunday" has also been occasionally found in Canada and the northeast. A stanza of "Seventeen" collected from Grammy Fish in New Hampshire in 1940, which is possibly very old, shows the "daisy" line directly connected to "Seventeen":
Where are you going my pretty maid
My little blue-eyed daisy?
I am not going very far
For really I am lazy[3].
In most versions "daisy" is rhymed with "crazy" and becomes the standard "Fly Around" identifying stanza:
Fly around my pretty little miss,
Fly around my daisy,
Fly around, my pretty little miss,
You almost run me crazy. [Brown Collection C, 1940]
The last line frequently appears with this variation: "You almost drive me crazy." The "pretty little miss" lyrics are sometimes "Blue-Eyed Gal/Girl" as found in this NC version from the 1800s by Bascom Lamar Lunsford[4]:
It's fly around my blue-eyed girl,
It's fly around my daisy,
It's fly around, my blue-eyed girl,
You've done run me crazy.
Other stanzas of "Seventeen" sometimes are included in versions of "Fly Around" confirming the association:
"How old are you, my pretty little miss,
How old are you, my honey?
She looked at me with a smiling look,
"I'll be sixteen next Sunday." [Lunsford's first verse]
Perhaps the most convincing stanza that shows the association of the standard "Fly Around" text and "Seventeen" is found in a version of "Seventeen" by Jean Ritchie of Kentucky who she says was "her father's version[5]." Since Balis Ritchie was born in the mid-1800s this version titled "Where are you Going?" could be very old. Here's the opening stanza from the Smithsonian Folkways recording, "Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson at Folk City." This version is virtually the same as the one published by Lomax in Folk Songs of North America, 1960 and is popular[6]. Here is the text:
1. (Doc) "Where are you goin' my pretty little miss,
Where are you goin' my daisy?"
(Jean) "O, if I don't get me a young man soon
I think I'm a-goin' crazy."
After looking at these examples it's evident that "Fly Around" was derived from the Scottish versions of "Seventeen" and that other verses of "Seventeen" including the "How old are you" identifying stanza have been borrowed to create a new song[7] that was derived from "Seventeen." "Fly Around," however, is a different song[8] and therefore is assigned as appendix 9B. Despite the popularity of "Fly around" it appears that this study may be the first to point of the association of the "Fly around" identifying stanza with the Scottish ending stanza of the first "Seventeen" form titled "Waukrife Mammy." The evolution from the Scotch, "Fare thee well my bonnie, bonnie lass" to the American "Fly around my pretty little miss" is the fundamental assertion. For more examples see the US & Canada Headnotes.
* * * *
The first extant published version, a fragment titled "Daisy," appeared in The Journal of American Folk-lore, 1892 which was taken from Lila W. Edmands' article, "Songs From the Mountains of North Carolina":
Daisy
1. Coffee grows on the white oak trees,
The rivers run with brandy,
My little gal is a blue-eyed gal
As sweet as any candy.
2. Fly around my blue-eyed gal,
So fly around my daisy,
Every time I see that gal
She almost runs me crazy.
Here, the identifying stanza is the second stanza which follows a floating stanza, the "Coffee grows" stanza. An explanation of the origin of the "Coffee grows" stanza is given in Wolfe and Fullerton, "Together We Sing," All Grades (or Enlarged) Edition, Follett Pub. Co., p. 245. Their play-party song titled, "Green Coffee Grows on White Oak Tops," was collected in Tennessee with the following note:
"This Tennessee folk song stems from a time when each cook bought green coffee beans and roasted them to suit her taste before roasting them. For many southern families during the Civil War, the only source for "coffee" was the acorns from the white oak."
The "Coffee Grows" stanza has been constructed from, or is similar to, another play-party stanza that has its roots in Scotland:
Charlie's neat, Charlie's sweet,
Charlie he's a dandy
Charlie, he's the very lad,
That stole my striped candy. [Jean Ritchie, "Over the River"]
Charley he's a good ol' man
Charley he's a dandy
Charley he's a good ol' man
He feeds them girls on candy. [Kelly Harrell, Virginia 1928]
As with the "How old are you" stanza from "Seventeen," the identifying stanza, "Fly around," has been mixed with the "Coffee Grows" stanza as well as other floating stanzas and has been titled "Wheevily Wheat," "Betty Anne," "Pretty Little Pink" or "Shady Grove," creating confusion. Perhaps this confusion began in 1916 when Stith Thompson published a Texas version with the "How old are you?" and "Fly around" stanzas and titled it-- "Wheevily Wheat." The problem? There were no stanzas of "Wheevily Wheat" in Thompson's version! The Lomaxes used the same title, "Wheevily Wheat (2)," for a similar collection of floating verses they published just fifteen years later. Both versions included the "Fly Around" stanza as "Run along," and the "How old are you" stanza and "Where do you live" stanzas-- all common to "Seventeen." Many of the stanzas that the Lomaxes published in 1934[9] were borrowed from Thompson. I now give the full Wheevily Wheat B version from "Round the Levee" edited by Stith Thompson, 1916. He comments:
Another version of "Weevily Wheat," collected by Miss Mary S. Brown of Gatesville, Texas, from Wallace Fogle, a famous play-party singer of Coryell County, runs as follows. The boys and girls line up opposite each other; the boys begin swinging at one end, and girls at the other, each swinging his or her partner.
Way down yonder in the maple swamp,
The water's deep and muddy.
There I spied my pretty little miss,
O there I spied my honey.
How old are you, my little miss,
How old are you, my honey?
She answered with a ha-ha laugh,
"I'll be sixteen next Sunday."
The higher up the cherry tree,
Riper grows the cherry,
Sooner a boy courts a girl,
Sooner they will marry.
So run along home, my pretty little miss,
Run along home, my honey,
Run along home, my pretty miss,
I'll be right there next Sunday.
Papa's gone to New York town,
Mama's gone to Dover,
Sister's worn her new slippers out
A-kicking Charley over.
The opening stanza may be considered a later revision of the early Scottish form (see Maid and Soldier) which in the Southern US is found similarly in the closely related play-party song with a different chorus-- "Swing A Lady." Here are the first two stanzas of a version of "Swing a Lady":
Cedar Swamp (Swing a Lady) Cora and Alice Turner Pine Mountain Kentucky. 1927
Way down yonder in the cedar swamp,
The water's deep and muddy,
There I saw my pretty little miss,
There I kissed my honey.
"How old are you, my pretty little miss,
How old are you, my honey?
How old are you, my pretty little miss,
"Sweet sixteen next Sunday."
The second stanza of both is the identifying stanza of "Seventeen" while the third stanza of "Wheevily Wheat" is another related stanza (song), "The Higher Up the Cherry Tree" which is similar to the old English proverb:
The higher the plum tree,
the riper the plum;
The richer the cobbler,
the blacker his thumb. ["The Protestant School" James Usher, 1698, London; Proverbs in Rhyme]
Notice that in this Texas version "Fly Around" is "run along" and that there are no stanzas specifically from "Wheevily Wheat"-- the only association with "Wheevily Wheat" is the "Charley" in the last line, which is reference to Bonny Prince Charlie (see details of this stanza later in this study). My contention is: "Wheevily Wheat" a different dance or play-party song (see the "Charlie's Sweet" stanzas above) with Scottish roots which are part of the song, "Over the River to Charlie." Unfortunately the title became a generic title after Thompson's Texas version and Lomaxes versions were printed using the "Wheevily Wheat" title. The version (Wheevily Wheat -2) from the Lomaxes in their 1934 book, "American Ballads and Folk Songs" borrows some the same stanzas from Thompson but adds other floating stanzas. "Wheevily Wheat" is not an appropriate title for either but is used as a generic, floating title. This illustrates the larger problem of separating and categorizing the various play party songs that use common floating stanzas.
The assumption that "Fly Around" originated from Scottish versions of "Seventeen" (Waukrife) is similar to the assumption that "Careless Love" originated from the "Apron" stanzas in "Died for Love." That both "Fly Around" and "Careless Love" are Americanized songs derived from archaic British ballad texts seems entirely reasonable. That once both "Fly Around" and "Careless Love" became established in America they lost vestiges of their British roots is also predictable. In the American evolution "Fly Around" lost the "How old are you" stanza and its other connections with "Seventeen" just as "Careless Love" was removed of its "apron" stanzas by W.C. Handy and the early jazz and blues performers. Handy, however, recognized that Careless Love was a folk song, and knew the "apron" stanzas were part of its early heritage[10].
The Scottish Evolution and the Attraction of Like Stanzas.
Assuming that "Fly Around" was derived from the "Fare-thee well, my bonnie, bonnie lass" stanza found in Scottish versions of "Seventeen (Waukrife Mammy)," then it could be associated with similar Scottish stanzas from Scottish love or courting songs. Another Scottish stanza from a different source is associated with "Fly Around"-- the similarly worded[11] "Pretty Little Pink" stanza. It was first reported by Burns in his song, "Here's to Thy Health, My Bonnie Lass," which he gave to Scots' (Johnson's) Musical Museum about 1797. "Here's to Thy Health," a love song with a similar textual cadence, is about a man bidding farewell to his former lover who he claims, perhaps because of his failed relationship, to care little about. The 2nd Burns stanza[12], obviously borrowed from tradition, appears thus:
O dinna think my pretty pink,
But I can live without thee:
I vow and swear, I dinna care
How lang ye look about ye.
"Pink" in this case seems to be nick-name referring to a "pink" flower[13]. The text, borrowed by Burns from Scottish tradition, where it was "well known in Ayrshire when Burns was a child (mid-1700s)[14]," has been found associated with "Fly Around" and other floating stanzas in the United States. It's remarkable to hear Tennessee Ernie Ford sing the following stanza in his song, "Fly Around My Pretty Little Pink," from on "Gather Ground" in 1959-- almost two hundred years later:
I reckon you think, my pretty little pink,
That I can't live without you
I'll let you know before I go
That I care very little about you.
The first extant publication of "Pretty Little Pink" as a song was in 1883 by W. W. Newell in "Games and Songs of American Children," No. 175, from East Tennessee. Newell adds: "The manner of playing [game instructions] has not been obtained." The stanza, a variation of Burns' stanza is included with two associated floating stanzas of North American origin.
"Pretty Little Pink"
My pretty little pink, I once did think
That you and I would marry,
But now I've lost all hope of that,
I can no longer tarry.
I've got my knapsack on my back,
My musket on my shoulder,
To march away to Quebec town,
To be a gallant soldier.
Where coffee grows on a white-oak tree,
And the rivers flow with brandy,
Where the boys are like a lump of gold,
And the girls as sweet as candy.
Wells mentions: "In another version, Mexico was substituted for Quebec." In another version of Seventeen[15] "New Orleans" [see Beard's NC version from the late 1800s] is substituted for Mexico. For more information about this stanza see David S. McIntosh's article, "Marching down to New Orleans" (Midwest Folklore, Vol. 4, No. 3, Illinois Issue, Autumn, 1954, pp. 139-148). The other stanza "Coffee grows," mentioned previously, is associated with another play-party song titled, "Four in the Middle" and has a rhyme similar to "Charlie's Sweet." Wells' East Tennessee text, "Pretty Little Pink" was reprinted by James Mooney in North Carolina about the same time[16]. Mooney, who published it with the location "Mexico town," included more information in his notes[17]:
"One song of this kind was obtained from a lady living on Oconaluftee River, who had sung it when a child at her old home near Murphy, in the extreme southeastern corner of the state . . . . The lady had forgotten the details of the game, but remembered that one girl, presumably the "pretty little pink," stood in the centre, while the others marched around her singing the song. She said it had a very pretty tune, which she had forgotten . . . . The lady stated, however, that as she had known it the children said "Quebec Town" instead of "Mexico," which might indicate that the first part of the song goes back as far as the French and Indian war." p.104.
A comparison[18] of the "Pretty Little Pink" stanza by Burns and Wells can be made to other "Pretty Little Pink" stanzas:
From Bradley Kincaid:
"I reckon you think my pretty little miss
That I can't live without you
But I'll let you know before I go
That I care very little about you." [Kentucky, 1929]
From Mother Goose:
"My little pink I suppose you think,
I cannot do with out you.
I will let you know before I go,
How little I care about you." [The Only True Mother Goose Melodies, 1833, Boston]
From Vance Randolph:
"My purty leetle pink I used to think
I couldn't live without you
But I'll let you know before I go
Thet I don't keer much about you." [The Ozark Play-Party, Randolph 1929]
The pervasive "pink" stanza extended also to singers in the African-American community. Here's Thomas W. Talley's version of "Pretty Little Pink" collected in the early 1900s (from the 1966 Kennikat edition of "Negro Folk Rhymes," p 127):
PRETTY LITTLE PINK
My pretty liddle Pink, I once did think,
Dat we-uns sho' would marry;
But I'se done give up, Hain't got no hope,
I haint got no time to tarry.
I'll drink coffee dat flows
From oaks dat grows,
'Long de river dat flows wid brandy.
A variation of the "Pink" stanza found in tradition[19] was recreated by Sara Martin (born 1884) and Richard M. Jones (born about 1890) in their "Late Last Night." According to Joseph Scott[20], "The lyrics they submitted to the Library Of Congress had "(The oldest blues in the world)" written at the bottom, and included:
"Now come my little pink, come tell me what you think
You're long time making up your mind
I distinctly understand that you love another one
So how can your heart be mine"
This different stanza with "Little Pink" found in folk and blues songs shows that the phrase has become a ballad commonplace. The "blues" stanza is from a different but related song. See: Stringbean's " Come My Little Pink," or Combs, 1939 "Little Pink" for folk versions of the same song.
The "Fly Around" title appears as "Fly Around My Pretty Little Pink" in several versions (see: Tennessee Ernie Ford's 1959 recording and the Renfro Valley Barn Dance version sung by Old Joe Clark). Clint Howard's version of Fly Around was titled "Pretty Little Pink" and has a similar chorus.
The traditional Appalachian stanzas of "Pretty Little Pink" similar to Burns' Scottish stanza were also found mixed with "Fly Around" and sung as a song. The most influential version was recorded in 1929 by The Kentucky Boy, Bradley Kincaid, who adapted his version from existing verses[21] to create this "Pretty Little Pink" composite. He published another similar version with the 'Wheevily Wheat" stanzas in his "Favorite Old-Time Songs and Mountain Ballads," book 2, 1929, p. 16-17. This is from his 1929 recording[22]:
PRETTY LITTLE PINK
Lor, Lor, my pretty little Pink
Lor, Lor, I say
Lor, Lor, my pretty little Pink
I'm going to stay away
Cheeks as red as a red, red rose
Her eyes as a diamond brown
I'm going to see my pretty little miss
Before the sun goes down
CHORUS: Fly around my pretty little miss
Fly around my daisy
Fly around my pretty little miss
You almost drive me crazy
Well I reckon you think my pretty little miss
That I can't live without you
But I'll let you know before I go
That I care very little about you.
It's rings upon my true love's hands
Shines so bright like gold
I'm gonna see my pretty little miss
Before it rains or snows [Chorus]
When I was up in the field of work
I sat down and cried
Studying about my blue eyed gal
Thought [to] my soul I'd die
[2nd Chorus] Fly around me pretty little miss
Fly around my dandy
Fly around my pretty little miss
I don't want none of your candy
Every time I go that road
It looks so dark and cloudy
Every time I see that girl
I always tell her, "howdy."
Coffee grows on white oak trees
The river flows with brandy
Rocks on the hills all covered with gold
And the girls all sweeter than candy. [2nd chorus]
I'll put my knapsack on my back
My rifle on my shoulder
I'll march away to Spartanburg
And there I'll be a soldier. [2nd chorus]
Every time I go that road
It looks so dark and hazy
Every time I see that girl
She almost drives me crazy [2nd chorus]
I asked that girl to marry me
And what did she say?
She said that she would marry me
Before the break of day [2nd chorus]
Kincaid's version uses the two "Fly Around" stanzas as choruses. Kincaid's version published in his 1929 booklet adds the following two Charlie' stanzas associated with "Wheevily Wheat[23]" to the core stanzas above:
Charlie is a nice young man
Charley is a dandy
Every time he goes to town
He buys the ladies candy
I don't want none of your weazely [wheevily] wheat
I don't want none of your barley
Want some flour in half an hour
To bake a cake for Charlie.
The "Wheevily Wheat" stanzas given by Kincaid are part of the play-party song "Over the River to Charlie" which curiously brings us back to Robert Burns again:
O'er the Water to Charlie[24]
Come boat me o'er, come row me o'er,
Come boat me o'er to Charlie;
I'll gie John Ross anither bawbee
To ferry me o'er to Charlie.
We'll o'er the water, we'll o'er the sea,
We'll o'er the water to Charlie;
Come weel, come wo, we'll gather and go,
And live and die wi' Charlie.
Above are the first stanza and chorus of this Jacobite song, an ode to "Charlie" who was Prince Charles Edward Stewart (1720-1788), known as "Bonnie Prince Charlie." Again Burns text, especially the first stanza and chorus, is taken from tradition. Jean Ritchie's version, adapted from her father, Balis Ritchie, combines "Pretty little Pink" and "Charlie's neat."
Over the River To Feed My Sheep
Charlie's neat, Charlie's sweet,
Charlie he's a dandy
Charlie, he's the very lad,
That stole my striped candy
[Chorus] Over the river to feed my sheep
Over the river Charlie
Over the river to feed my sheep
And to measure up my barley
My pretty little Pink, I once did think
I never could do without you
Since I lost all hopes of you
I care very little about you [Chorus]
Don't want your wheat, I don't want your cheat
And neither do I want your barley.
I'll take a little of the best you've got
To bake a cake for Charlie. [Chorus]
Thus we see the curious combination of Scottish stanzas taken from tradition and by Burns' hand transcribed. Ironically, Burns also published the first version of "Seventeen" in 1790 (Johnson's Musical Museum, No. 188) titled "Waukrife Minnie."
Whether it was the influence of Kincaid's version or an adaptation aired on John Lair's Renfro Valley radio shows, a number of versions appeared with the "Fly Around My Pretty Little Pink" title and this chorus:
Fly around my pretty little pink,
Fly around my daisy,
Fly around my pretty little pink,
You almost drive me crazy.
The "Pretty little pink" stanza that Robert Burns learned in his childhood that was "well known in Ayrshire" not only became a stanza found in 'Fly Around" but it also replaced "pretty little miss" in some versions and became "pretty little pink."
* * * *
One of the earliest versions of "Fly Around" is from the Brown Collection of NC Folklore, Volume 3 (1952) under No. 286. Fly Around, version A. This composite learned by Bascom Lamar Lunsford in 1898 has the "fly around" chorus and is a version more properly of "Fly Around" although it also has stanzas from "Seventeen."
A. 'That Blue-Eyed Girl.' Sung by Fletch Rymer, a banjo-picker, in "The Beats" near the mouth of Newfound Creek in Buncombe county.
1 How old are you, my pretty little miss?
How old are you, my honey?
She looked at me with a smiling look:
'I'll be sixteen next Sunday.'
Chorus: It's fly around, my blue-eyed girl,
It's fly around, my daisy;
It's fly around, my pretty little miss —
You've done run me crazy.
2 Will you marry me, my pretty little miss?
Will you marry me, my honey?
She looked at me with a smiling look :
'I'll marry you some Sunday.'
3 It's every day and Sunday too,
It seems so dark and hazy,
I'm thinking about my blue-eyed girl —
She's done run me crazy.
4 It's every day and Sunday too
I hang my head and cry;
I'm thinking about my blue-eyed girl —
Oh, surely I will die!
5 If I had no horse at all,
I'd be found a-crawlin'
Up and down the rocky branch
Looking for my darlin'.
The opening stanzas are "Seventeen" and once again (see Kincaid's version) "Fly Around" is the chorus. From these play-party songs, sung as a one-part ballad, came a different arrangement with a slightly different form-- the fiddle and instrumental tune: "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss."
Fiddle and Instrumental Form- The Early Recording Era (1920s)
The first recording[24] with the title, "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss" was an instrumental banjo version with square dance calls by Samantha Bumgarner in 1924 (Columbia Records, NYC). By the 1920s the song form had been replaced[26] by the uptempo dance or fiddle form. A second instrumental part (B part) was added to the vocal part (A part). The melody, centered on the tonic scale, was sung or played in common time basically over the I (tonic) chord. The V chord may be added briefly at the cadence[]. Here's a typical 8 bar chord progression which is repeated:
A part: I, I, I, I,
I, I, I-V, I
Perhaps to add interest, a second 8 bar part was created which is instrumental (also repeated):
B part I, IV, I, V,
I, IV, I-V, I
"Fly Around" became a rollicking up-beat fiddle tune when fiddler Charlie Bowman and The Hillbillies recorded "Blue Eyed Girl." The vocal part is included merely an afterthought. After a number of rounds (AABB), the vocal is finally sung over one A part:
Blue Eyed Girl
[Extended Instrumental]
Fly Around my blue-eyed gal
Fly around my daisy
Every time I see that gal
It purt-near drives me crazy.
[Instrumental]
If I had a horse to ride,
I'd be found a-crawlin'
Up and down this rocky road,
Going to see my darlin'.
[Instrumental]
Fly Around my blue-eyed gal
Fly around my daisy
Every time I see that gal
It purt-near drives me crazy.
[Instrumental- end]
Another 1927 early recording of "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss" was a version by the Ashe County, North Carolina, string band Frank Blevins and His Tar Heel Rattlers, a name made up on the spot at the Columbia recording session in Atlanta for 16 year old fiddler Frank Blevins, his older brother and guitarist Ed Blevins and banjo player Fred Miller[27].
Blevins led the band with spirited fiddling and singing that belied his age. Inspired by a few shots of Georgia corn liquor, they first recorded the traditional mountain dance tune Sally Ann, a rendition with such verve and passion that it rivals any other. Next they performed I've Got No Honey Babe Now, a song that shares some lyrics with the old banjo piece Honey Babe, but with a different melody. Old Aunt Betsy was a Frank Blevins original, combining a simple theme with exuberant delivery. The session ended with a second traditional dance tune, Fly Around my Pretty Little Miss. Here are Blevins lyrics:
Fly Around my Pretty Little Miss
Inst.
Fly around my pretty little miss,
Fly around my daisy;
Fly around my pretty little miss,
You like to drive me crazy.
[Instrumental]
I went round to see my gal,
She was standing at the door.
Shoes and stockings in her hand,
Barefeet on the floor.
Fly around my pretty little miss,
Fly around my daisy;
Fly around my pretty little miss,
You like to drive me crazy.
[Instrumental]
When I was a little boy,
Sixteen inches high,
Up’n kissed that pretty little gal
Apple of my eye.
[Instrumental]
Fly around my pretty little miss,
Fly around my daisy;
Fly around my pretty little miss,
You like to drive me crazy.
The floating stanzas from Blevins version are taken from play-party songs, "Shady Grove" and "Old Joe Clark." A third 1927 recording was made by the West Virginia Coon Hunters for Ralph Peer at Victor Records "Bristol Sessions." The Coon Hunters, a large string band from Bluefield with at times nine members, recorded only one other song, "Greasy String" in Bristol. Their brief recording career ended when they were not called back by Victor for another session.
Your Blue Eyes Drive Me Crazy
[instrumental]
Verse: Mossy had a yeller gal
He brought her from the south
Her hair up on her head so kinked
And couldn't shut her mouth
Chorus: Fly around, my purty little miss
Fly around my daisy;
Fly around my purty little miss
Your blue-eyes drive me crazy.
[instrumental]
Verse: Susie tried to kiss me,
She called me sugar plum
She put her arms around my neck
I thought my time had come. [Chorus:]
[instrumental]
Verse: Went to see my Susie,
Standing in the door,
Shoes and stockings in her hand,
Feet all over the floor. [Chorus:]
[instrumental]
The first stanza is from the old minstrel song, "The Gal from the south." The second is found in "Cindy" and the last I associate with Shady "Grove." The next year a duo fiddle version with six stanzas and a floating chorus was made by the Atlanta, Georgia string band, The Skillet Lickers with Riley Puckett on guitar and vocals along with a Clayton McMichen and Gid Tanner on fiddle[28].
FLY AROUND MY PRETTY LITTLE MISS
Put that meat all under the bed
Yonder comes the owner
Sold my hog and bought me a mule
Ain't gonna pray no more.
Eighteen pounds of meat a week
Whisky in a still;
How can the young men stay at home
When the girls all look so well.
Fare you well my pretty little miss
Fare you well my honey
If I'm not there by the middle of the week
You can look for me on Sunday
Jaybird died with the whooping cough
Sparrow died with the colic
Long came a red bird fiddle on his back
Wind along girls to the frolic.
Eighteen pounds of meat a week
Whisky in a still
How can the young men stay at home
When the girls all look so well
Put that meat all under the bed
Yonder comes the owner
Sold my hog and bought me a mule
Ain't gonna pray no more
Fare you well my pretty little miss
Fare you well my honey
If I'm not there by the middle of the week
You can look for me on Sunday
Eighteen pounds of meat a week
Whisky in a still
How can the young men stay at home
When the girls all look so well Spoken: Court 'em, boys, court 'em.
The Skillet Lickers still sang the old Scottish influenced chorus with "Fare you well my pretty little miss" while adding a number of different floating stanzas. Naturally, a song made up of mostly floating stanzas will sometimes be missing the identifying stanza. Such is the case in this next early-country song with harmonica instead of fiddle. The earliest text with the "Fly Around" melody and form was made by Virginia musician Henry Whitter who sang, backing himself with guitar and a harmonica (Okeh 40077 Issued: April, 1924):
"Western Country"
(Harmonica solo)
I went out to the western country,
The weather was so dry.
Sun came out froze me to death
Susanna don’t you cry.
(Harmonica solo)
I wish I had some pretty little girl
To tell my secrets to.
For this old thing I have here,
Told every thing I do.
(Harmonica solo)
I wish I had nickel
I wish I had a dime
I wish I had some pretty little girl
That I could call mine.
(Harmonica solo)
Someone stole my little black dog
I wish they’d give him back
He run the old sow over the fence
And the little pigs through the cracks.
(Harmonica solo)
Whitter's version is clearly the melody and form of "Fly Around." This last example of an early-country version of "Fly Around" is also missing the identifying stanza. It's by Dad Blackard's Moonshiners under the title "Susanna Gal" as recorded in 1927. It does have the somewhat similar "Fare-thee-well forever, Suzanna gal" line.
"Susanna Gal"
I am going away to leave you Suzanna gal
I am going away to leave you Suzanna gal
I am going to the western country, Suzanna gal
I am going to the western country, Suzanna gal
I'm going tomorrow to marry you, Suzanna gal
I'm going tomorrow to marry you, Suzanna gal
Fare-thee well forever, Suzanna gal
Fare-thee well forever, Suzanna gal
I am going to the western country, Suzanna gal
I am going to the western country, Suzanna gal
I'm going tomorrow to marry you, Suzanna gal
I'm going tomorrow to marry you, Suzanna gal.
Also included in the Blackard/Shelor version above is a "western country" stanza. The melody and form were used by a wide variety of old-time groups including the Tenneva Ramblers, who used the title, "I'm Going to Georgia." The majority of titles appear as "Fly Around" with "Pretty Little Miss" or "Blue Eyed Gal," "Western Country," "Susannah Gal" and "Pretty Little Miss/Pink." Related texts are found in the standard American play-party songs including "Shady Grove," "Wheevily Wheat," "Cindy," "Old Joe Clark" and "Four in the Middle." Another commonly related stanza is "The Higher Up the Cherry Tree." This old stanza[29] as sung by Mrs. Jane Gentry at Hot Springs, Madison Co., N. C, July 27, 1917 is also associated with "Seventeen" and "Fly Around":
The higher up the cherry tree,
The riper grows the berry;
The sooner a young man courts a girl,
The sooner they will marry.
Related stanzas including "Coffee Grows" "Pretty Little Pink" "Marching to Quebec/Mexico/New Orleans" are also found under the title "Pretty Little Pink."
* * * *
A final version collected by Cecil Sharp in the Southern Appalachians follows. It may be recognized as the version Bradley Kincaid used to "borrow" his stanzas for his version of Pretty Little Pink:
BETTY ANNE- from Mrs. Ellie Johnson of Hot Springs, NC, dated 1916, published English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, 1917.
CHORUS: Lor', lor', my little Betty Anne,
Lor', lor', I say,
Lor', lor', my little Betty Anne,
I'm going away to stay.
Cheeks as red as a red, red rose,
Her eyes as a diamond brown,
I'm going to see my pretty little miss
Before the sun goes down.
It's rings on my true love's hands
Shines so bright like gold.
Go and see my pretty little Miss
Before it rains or snows.
When I was up at the field at work,
I sit down and cry,
Studying' bout my blue-eyed boy,
I thought to my God I'd die.
Fly around my pretty little Miss,
Fly around I say,
Fly around, my pretty little Miss,
You'll almost drive me crazy.
Fly around my pretty little Miss,
Fly around my dandy,
Fly around my pretty little Miss,
I don't want no more of your candy.
Kincaid's version based on Sharp's text was influential and was the basis for several stanzas of Tennessee Ernie Ford's version. "Betty Anne" is a Madison County NC version of "Fly Around" which has been collected three times from older informants who lived in the early 1900s under the title, "Little Betty Ann" (See Cas Wallin, Dellie Norton and Inex Chander versions).
* * * *
A book could be written on the various associations of the different play-party/fiddle songs that are found in versions of "Seventeen" and "Fly Around." Although "Pretty Little Pink," "Coffee Grows," "Marching to Quebec/Mexico" and "The Higher Up the Cherry Tree" are separate songs/stanzas, they were often blended with the "Fly Around" stanza by singers and fiddlers to make variant songs. Some of the stanzas are clearly of Scottish origin and came to America by the late 1700s or early 1800s where they were adapted and sung as folk songs. By the early 1900s the standard instrumental form used by fiddlers was created, the AABB form (A=8 bars), with vocals sung over the A parts. Some fiddle and instrumental versions using the standard melody and form (sometimes titled "Blue-Eyed gal," "Western Country," "Susanna Gal") had no text in common with "Fly Around" and were made up of floating verses. Meade[30] lists the Skillet Lickers' "Fly Around" version with Fiddlin' Powers "Rocky Road to Dinah's House" and under "Fly Around" he lists a. "Western Country" and b. "Shady Grove." Perrow's B version dated 1905 (my C. version) has the Shady Grove chorus but only one stanza of "Fly Around."
Despite the wide assortment of uses of the "Fly Around" stanza and the evolution of the fiddle and instrumental melody and form with floating stanzas, the natural association of the "Fly Around" stanza is to its roots: the Scottish versions of Seventeen Come Sunday which are the A form, Waukrife Mammy. "Fly Around" therefore was naturally related with the core stanzas of "Seventeen" include the identifying stanza "How old are you?"and the other courting questions. "Fly Around" is a courting song and most of the variant stanzas are about courting a "pretty little miss," "pretty little pink" or "blue-eyed girl." It's fitting that the Skillet Lickers' version ends with these spoken words: "Court 'em, boys, court 'em."
In the last 50 years "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss" has become a dance song and fiddle tune, sometimes sung with floating lyrics, that has lost all vestiges of its roots. It is still well-known from earlier traditions in North Carolina, West-Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky and played a local jam sessions. The identifying stanza "Fly Around" and a secondary core stanza, "Higher up the cherry tree," seem to be the only older stanzas that are frequently sung (listen to over 20 recent traditional versions at: Digital Appalachia).
R. Matteson 2018]
________________________________________
Footnotes:
1. Robert Burns, Waukrife Minnie, 1790 Johnson's Musical Museum. several other versions have "bonnie bonnie" which fits better than just "bonnie."
2. Gid Tanner and his Skillet Lickers, Columbia 15709-D, Atlanta Georgia, 1928.
3. "Hi Rinky Dum," as sung by Grammy Fish of New Hampshire in 1940. From Country Dance and Song, No. 9, 1978; also Warner Traditional American Folk Songs. The "lazy" ending is not found in tradition-- "daisy" rhymes with "crazy."
4. Brown Collection of NC Folklore, Volume 3, 1952.
5. Source is quoted from a post on Mudcat Discussion Forum where Ritchie give two stanzas and the chorus.
6. It's also quoted in liner notes of the Monroe family version which is an instrumental. Some controversy surrounds this text which Lomax attributes to Peggy Seeger.
7. songs, (plural) is more appropriate-- with a wide variety of associated stanzas and titles.
8. "different songs" -- versions of "Fly Around" are of two types (play-party song/fiddle tune) and the stanza is found in a variety of song. The form and fiddle/instrumental tune do not always have the identifying stanza and are named a variety of names including "Western Country" or "Susanna Gall."
9. In addition to the stanzas borrowed from but not credited to Thompson were other floating stanzas including the Wheevily Wheat stanza.
10. Handy also published a "folk" version with one "apron" stanza. See my study 7L. Careless Love.
11. pretty little pink= pretty little miss, "pink" being a nickname from a flower.
12. Two stanzas are grouped as one so it could be regarded as the second half of the first stanza.
13. For a possibly related play-party song where "pink" is obviously a flower, see Botkin (American Play-Party: p. 139)
All around, all around my pretty little pinks
That grew in yonder garden.
14. "Here's to Thy Health" was reworked by The Bard who used traditional stanzas as the basis for many of his songs. The quote is from Burns' sister-- the exact quote from "The Kilmarnock Edition of the Poetical Works of Robert Burns" by Robert Burns, William Scott Douglas - 1896 appears: "The sentiments are just those one might suppose his muse would have suggested during his earlier days at Loohlea; and yet Mrs. Begg, the poet's sister, has expressed her belief that this was an old production, well known in Ayrshire when her brother was a child."
15. Beard's version is related to "Pretty Little Pink" and "Seventeen" but does not have the 'Fly around" stanza.
16. As collected and printed by James Mooney, "Folklore of the Carolina Mountains," The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 2, No. 5 (April-June, 1889), p. 104. The almost identical text (Mexico instead of Quebec) was suspicious at first until I read Mooney's article and realized Wells version was from the same source. Mooney's notes about the play-party game, however vague, were details of the game were not provided by Wells.
17. Ibid-- the notes were edited and appeared in a Mudcat Discussion Forum post.
18. These examples were posted on the Mudcat Discussion Forum (see Pretty Little Pink" thread) and there are many more.
19. This different association which appears with variations of the text "I understand you love another man" is found, for example, in the I.D. Stamper version or Stringbean's "Come My Little Pink." It is a different song.
20. Blues researcher Joseph Scott post this on the Mudcat Discussion Forum (find: Google search).
21. See; "Betty Anne" sung by Mrs. Ellie Johnson, NC, dated 1916 and published in Sharp's English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, 1917.
22. Pretty Little Pink - GE 15740, Bradley Kincaid in April, 1929-- Gennett was located in Richmond, Indiana.
23. Although "Wheevily Wheat" stanzas are of British origin, the term "wheevily wheat" has been traced back to the early 1800s in America. Weevily wheat is wheat which has been infested with live weevils or other insects injurious to stored grain.
24. Found in Johnson's Musical Museum. Burns does not claim the song as his. The "verses," Stenhouse says, “were revised and improved by Burns." The first verse and very similar chorus appear in Hogg's “Jacobite Reliques" as follows:
1. Come boat me o'er, come ferry me o'er,
Come boat me o'er tae Charlie
I'd hear the call once, but never again,
Tae carry me over tae Charlie.
Chorus: We'll over the water, we'll over the sea,
We'll over the water tae Charlie.
Come weel, come woe, we'll gather and go
And live or die with Charlie.
25. The song under the title "Western Country" was recorded with lyrics in April, 1924 by Henry Whitter.
26. The old form was replaced in the recordings of the 1920s not necessarily in tradition but this also happened.
27. This stanza and the next are taken almost verbatim from my friend Stewie as posted on the Mudcat Discussion Forum.
28. Source: The Skillet Lickers 'Old-Time Fiddle Tunes and Songs from North Georgia' County CD-3509
29. Most of Jane Hick Gentry's texts were old and brought to North Carolina from her ancestors in Virginia.
30. Guthrie Mead, Country Music Sources, 2002. "Rocky Road to Dinah's House" is similar but the melody is variant. Certain fiddle tunes that seem to be nearly identical might have a slight melodic or rhythmic variation and they are know as different tunes.