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Bile Them Cabbage Down
Traditional Old-Time, Breakdown. USA; Oklahoma, Arkansas, southwestern Pa., northeast Alabama.
ARTIST: From Earl Johnson and His Dixie Entertainers 80265-A-OK 45112 23 March 1927 Atlanta Georgia.Reissued on Earl Johnson 'Complete Recorded Works Vol I' Document DOCD 8005.
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: Early 1900’s
OTHER NAMES: The word 'bile' means 'boil'. "Boil Them Cabbage Down," "Bake Them Hoecakes Brown."
RECORDING INFO: Recorded by numerous North Georgia bands: Riley Puckett and Gid Tanner (1924), The Skillet Lickers (1928), Earl Johnson (1928), and the Georgia Wildcats (1937) {Clayton McMichen's band}. County 723, Fred Cockerham, Tommy Jarrell & Oscar Jenkins - "Back Home in the Blue Ridge". Paramount 3151 (78 RPM), 1928, The Dixie Crackers {North Georgia}. Heritage 048, "Georgia Fiddle Bands" {Brandywine, 1982}, (1983). Vocalation 14849 (78 RPM), Uncle Dave Macon (1924). Anderson, Bob; and the Country Ramblers. Indiana Hoedown, Puritan 5003, LP (1973), cut#B.03 (Bile Them Cabbage Down); Ball, E. C. (Estil C.). Land of Yahoe, Rounder 8041, CD (1996), cut# 4 (Bile Them Cabbage Down); Benoit, Jarvis. Tarbot Anthology. Cape Breton's Music Festival, Shag Rock SOTH 0001, LP (1978), cut#A.08; Blue Ridge Mountain Dancers. Folk Festival of the Smokies. Vol. 1, Traditional FFS-528, LP (197?), cut# 1c; Brower, Cecil (Cousin Cecil). Old Fashion Country Hoedown, Cumberland MGC 29500, LP (196), cut#B.01 (Bile Dem Cabbage Down); Campbell, Jon. Campbell Family. Champion Fiddlers, Fretless 101, LP (1977), cut#B.04; Clayton, Paul. Dulcimer Songs and Solos, Folkways FG 3571, LP (1962), cut# 7 (Bile Them Cabbage Down); Cockerham, Jarrell and Jenkins. Back Home in the Blue Ridge, County 723, LP, cut# 6 (Bile 'Em Cabbage Down); Coon Creek Girls. Early Radio Favorites, Old Homestead OHS 142, LP (1982), cut# 15; Ensemble. Shivaree!, Esoteric ES-538, LP (1955), cut# 4a (Bile 'Em Cabbage Down); Farina, Richard. Dick Farina & Eric Von Schmidt, Folklore F-Leut/7, LP (1963), cut#A.04d; Farina, Richard and Mimi. Celebrations for a Grey Day, Vanguard VSD 79174, LP (196?), cut# 13g (Celebrations for a Grey Day); Feldmann, Peter. How to Play Country Fiddle, Vol.1, Sonyatone STI-101, LP (1975), cut# 1; Flippen, Benton. Old Times, New Times, Rounder 0326, Cas, cut# 1 (Bile Them Cabbage Down); Frazier, Nathan; and Frank Patterson. Altamont: Black Stringband Music from the Library of Congress, Rounder 0238, LP (1989), cut# 3 (Bile Them Cabbage Down); Hamilton, Frank. Frank Hamilton Sings Folk Songs, Folkways FA 2437, LP (1962), cut# 10 (Boil the/them Cabbage Down); Houle, Lawrence "Teddy Boy". Wood That Sings, Smithsonian/Folkways SF 40472, CD (1997), cut#19f (Bile 'Em Cabbage Down) ; Jackson, John. Step It Up and Go, Rounder 2019, LP (1979), cut# 4 (Bile 'Em Cabbage Down); Jones, Clark. Early American Folk Music Music & Songs, Folkways FTS 31091, LP (1982), cut# 9b; King, Wayne. Old Time Fiddle Hits, Vol. 1, Banff CM4-735 Tape, Cas, cut# 7 (Boil the/them Cabbage Down); Kizzar, Tim. In an Arizona Town, AFF AFF 33-3, LP (1976?), cut# 10 (Boil the/them Cabbage Down); Mace, Lee;'s Ozark Opry. Some Old Favorites, Ozark Opry VJ 0011, Cas (198?), cut#B.07; Maloy, Frank. Devil's Box, Devil's Box DB, Ser (196?), 23/1, p43 (Boil the/them Cabbage Down); McGee Brothers and Arthur Smith. McGee Brothers and Arthur Smith, Folkways FA 2379, LP (1964), cut# 22 (Bile 'Em Cabbage Down); McLain Family Band. Country Dance Album, Country Life CLR-16, LP (1986), cut#A.05 (Boil the/them Cabbage Down); McMichen, Clayton. Traditional Music at Newport, 1964, Part 2, Vanguard VSD 79183, LP (1965), cut#A.02; Monroe, Charlie; & the Kentucky Pardners. Songs of Charlie Monroe and the Kentucky Pardners, County 539, LP (1974), cut# 6 (Bile Them Cabbage Down); Old Reliable String Band. Old Reliable String Band, Folkways FA 2475, LP (1963), cut#B.01 (Boil the/them Cabbage Down); Price, Bill & Betty. Bill and Betty Price, Rural Rhythm RRBP-239, LP (197?), cut#B.05; Puckett, Riley. Riley Puckett Story, Roots RL-701, LP (1971), cut# 3 (Bile Dem Cabbage Down); Reese, Belton;, Thadeus Goodson and Israel Alston. Library of Congress Banjo Collection, Rounder 0237, LP (1988), cut# 18 (Bile Dem Cabbage Down); Skillet Lickers. Day in the Mountains, County 512, LP (196?), cut# 3g (Fiddler's Convention in Georgia); Smothers Brothers. Two Sides of the Smothers Brothers, Mercury MG 20675, LP (196?), A.05 (Cabbage); Steele, Cye. Irish Walking Cane Fiddler, Black Bear BBR 1005, LP (196?), cut#B.08 (Boil the/them Cabbage Down); Stoneman, Ernest (V., "Pop"). Mountain Music On the Autoharp, Folkways FA 2365, LP (1965), cut# 6; Stoneman, Ernest (V., "Pop"). Stoneman Family Old Time Songs, Folkways FA 2315, Cas (1957), cut# 9 (Bile 'Em Cabbage Down); Wanzer, Loyd. Folk Fiddling Left Handed Style, American Heritage AH-LP 19B, LP (196?), cut#A.04 (Bile Down the Cabbage); Wheeler, Carol Ann. Joy of Fiddling, American Heritage 401-532, LP, cut# 7c (Boil the Cabbage); Williams, Tommy. Forever Fiddlin', Murray MR-5500, LP (198?), cut#B.04 (Boil the/them Cabbage Down);
RELATED MELODY: Possum on the Rail ; Old Wife Who Wanted Spruncin' ; Bull Train ; Four Hand Reel ; Carve That Possum RELATED TO: Drake's Reel ; Travelin' Down the Road ; Dorset Four Hand Reel ; Dugannon
SOURCES: Lomax-FSNA 269, "Bile Them Cabbage Down" Claude Thompson (Cotton County, Oklahoma) [Thede], John Nicholson (Fayette County, Pa., 1949) [Bayard]. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 219, pg. 173. Reiner (Anthology of Fiddle Styles), 1977; pg. 8. Ruth (Pioneer Western Folk Tunes), 1948; No. 118, pg. 41 (appears as "Bake Those Hoe Cakes Brown"). Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1964; pg. 76 (includes variations, and appears as "Boil the Cabbage Down"). Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; pg. 69. Botkin-SoFolklr, p. 710, "Bile dem Cabbage Down," Silber-FSWB, p. 40, "Bile Them Cabbage Down"; Rockwell, Jerry. Dulcimer Player News, Dulcimer Player News DPN, Ser (1973-), 7/2, p26; Thompson, Claude. Fiddle Book, Oak, Bk (1967), p 69b (Bile Them Cabbage Down); Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc;
NOTES: "D Major (Bayard, Thede): A Major (Reiner, Ruth, Sweet). Standard or AEAE (McMichen). One part: AABB (Sweet): AABBCCDD' (Ruth)." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc). This fast fiddle tune has two versions. This version has Verse-Chorus (The Verse stays on the I chord in the 2nd meas.). In some versions the lyrics are sung over the Chorus. "Ralph Rinzler traces the tune to an early English country dance "Smiling Polly," in print in 1765. "Bile Them Cabbage Down" is commonly found in beginning fiddle instructors and in ditty-books, and is "a negro reel tune which has become universally popular among white square dance musicians" (Alan Lomax). African-American origins are evident in collections of White, Scarborough and Brown-all from black informants. Tennessee banjoist and entertainer Uncle Dave Macon recorded one of the first versions of the song in 1924. Clayton McMichen put together a virtuoso version of this tune to use in competition at various major fiddle contests. Also played by Arthur Smith on his radio broadcasts (Frank Maloy). The tune was Clayton McMichen's favorite contest tune, by his own account (Charles Wolfe). Richardson, in "American Mountain Songs", pg. 88., thought the tune was derived from "Oh Susanna." The title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by folklorist/musicologist Vance Randolph, published in 1954. Cauthen (1990) found evidence the tune was commonly known in northeast Alabama from its mention in two sources: reports of the De Kalb County Annual (Fiddlers') Convention 1926-31, and in the book Sourwood Tonic and Sassafras Tea (where it was listed as one of the tunes played by turn of the century Etowah County fiddler George Cole). Richard Nevins believes the tune was not known in the Mt. Airy, N.C., musical community until the advent of the phonograph." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
The earliest recorded version of the song was by Fiddlin' John Carson in 1924. Although 'Dem' is retained in the title of the song, Fiddlin' John definitely sings 'them'. However, the 'dem', the 'master', the 'yella girl' and the taking of the wife to 'New Orleans' (John was a Georgian chicken farmer) would seem to betray the song's minstrel/medicine show and black tradition connections. Carson's version was a reasonably sedate affair, accompanied only by his fiddle. Earl Johnson's version (the second earliest recorded version- 1927) is a much more spirited hoedown treatment - and it has totally different verses.
As an instrumental, 'Bile dem cabbage down' was part of the countryman's common stock - black and white - of traditional music that also included tunes like 'Old Hen Cackle', 'Turkey in the Straw', 'Sourwood Mountain', 'Leather Britches', 'Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy' and dozens of others. Clayton McMichen, the 'reluctant hillbilly' and member of the Skillet Lickers', said he won the national fiddle championship 16 times playing the tune. Evidently, he would improvise on the melody like a jazz soloist or modern bluegrasser. Some later fiddlers absorbed part of his improvisations as a normal part of the tune.
Here are the lyrics to Earl Johnson's recording of the “Boil Dem Cabbage Down:”
Boil them cabbage down
Turn them hoecakes around
The only tune that I can play
Is boil them cabbage down
I went up on the mountain
*It's not known around
Put me in a coffee pot
Blowed me through the spout
Boil them cabbage down
Turn them hoecakes around
The only tune that I can play
Is boil them cabbage down
I asked that girl to marry me
She said she'd see me later
She mashed my nose all over my face
Like a great big hard potato
Boil them cabbage down
Turn them hoecakes around
The only tune that I can play
Is boil them cabbage down
Wish I had a nickel
Wish I had a dime
Wish I had a redhaired girl
And I could call her mine
Boil them cabbage down
Turn them hoecakes around
The only tune that I can play
Is boil them cabbage down
Wish I had a wide brim hat
Push it in the crown
Go to see some pretty little girl
And turn my damper down
Boil them cabbage down
Turn them hoecakes around
The only tune that I can play
Is boil them cabbage down
Greenback in my pocket
Whisky when I'm dry
If I come drunk and ragged
I'll live until I die
Boil them cabbage down
Turn them hoecakes around
The only tune that I can play
Is boil them cabbage down
*Lyrics hard to understand here.
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