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Blue-Tail Fly
Breakdown and Song tune by Daniel Decatur Emmett;
ARTIST: From Ruth Crawford Seeger in her book, "American Folk songs for Children" included this version that has more emphasis on animals and less on a story line. A recording of this version by Mike & Peggy Seeger is found on their collection of songs from the book. In the book Ruth Seeger notes that she learned it from a phonograph recording of an old man who said on the recording that he learned it from an aged banjo picker when he (the old man) was a small boy.
Listen: Bradley Kincaid; Blue-Tail Fly
Listen: Leadbelly; Blue-Tail Fly
Listen: Burl Ives; Blue-Tail Fly
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: 1844;
RECORDING INFO: Pete Seeger, "Jim Crack Corn" (on PeteSeeger03, PeteSeegerCD03); "The Blue Tail Fly" (on PeteSeeger17). Molsky, Bruce; and Big Hoedown. Bruce Molsky and Big Hoedown, Rounder 0421, CD (1997), cut#15; Cooney, Michael. Steamboat Coming, National Geographic Soc. 07787, LP (1976), cut# 13; Gellert, Dan. American Fogies. Vol. 1, Rounder 0379, CD (1996), cut#12; Ives, Burl. Burl Ives, Vol. 3, Decca DL 5093, LP (195?), cut#A.04; Ives, Burl. Burl Ives Sings for Fun, Decca DL 8248, LP (195?), cut#A.07; Kincaid, Bradley. Mountain Ballads and Old Time Solos. Album Number Three, Bluebonnet BL 109, LP (1963), cut#B.01; McCoy, Paul (B.). Allegheny Trails, Jewel LPS 504, LP (1975), cut#B.01; North Fork Ramblers. Gee Ain't It Grand, Fretless FR 140, LP (1979), cut#B.03; Okun, Milt. America's Best Loved Folk Songs, Baton BL 1293, LP (1957), B.08; Parker, Chet. Hammered Dulcimer, Folkways FA 2381, LP (1966), cut# 1c; Parker, Chet. Hammered Dulcimer, Folkways FA 2381, LP (1966), cut# 1d; Stracke, Win. Songs of Early Times, Early Times, LP (1961), cut#A.05
OTHER NAMES: Jim Crack Corn Jimmie Crack Corn (Gimme Cracked Corn)
SOURCES: Lomax-FSNA 267, "The Blue-Tail Fly" Native American Balladry, Amer. Folklore Society, Bk (1964), p256; Laws I19, "The Blue-Tail Fly"; Friedman, p. 453, "The Blue-Tail Fly"; RJackson-19CPop, pp. 91-92, "Jim Crack Corn or the Blue Tail Fly"; Arnett, p. 66, "Jim Crack Corn (Blue-Tail Fly)"; Botkin-SoFolklr, p. 709, "The Blue-Tail Fly"; PSeeger-AFB, p. 12, "The Blue-Tail Fly"; Silber-FSWB, p. 30, "The Blue-Tail Fly"; Fuld-WFM, p. 312, "Jim Crack Corn"
NOTES: Same chorus as "Shoo Fly". Credited to Daniel Emmett by Spaeth but it’s likely that if he wrote it from other sources. One of the earliest publications was in a series credited to him -- but the absence of his name on the earliest copies goes far toward discrediting his authorship. The subtext for this song is that the slave in fact killed the master himself, blaming it on the blue-tail fly. This is hinted at, to varying degrees, in some versions of the song.
CRACK CORN? The Civil War song, Jimmy Cracked Corn, was one of Abe Lincoln's favorite songs! However, in the song, Jimmy wasn't really cracking corn. He was sleeping, and "cracking corn" was another term for snoring.
"Jimmy Crack Corn" was slang for "gimme cracked corn" or corn liquor. "Jimcrack o' corn and I don't care" "Jimcrack" is a measure of whiskey.
"Cracking corn" for telling jokes or tall tales: "I should explain to your Lordship what is meant by crackers; a name they have got from being great boasters; they are a lawless bunch of rascals on the frontiers of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas and Georgia, who often change their places of abode. G. Cochrane, 1766, in "Letters," 27 June. OED; The term comes from the Scottish-northern English word crack (crake), meaning boasting, which has been used in that sense from 1460 in print. See OED, 1971 and later eds. Georgia apparntly was first called the Cracker State in print in 1808, in "Balance," Verses by a Cracker Planter.
According to "The Cassel Dictionary of Slang" "Crack-Corn" referred to White People and originally meant the White natives of Kentucky. It was apparently a variation of "corncracker" which meant a poor white farmer and was apparently applied to the natives of Florida, Georgia, Kentucky or Tennessee possibly because of their dependance on corn or maize. Corn in the British Isles refers to wheat, oats or barley as distinct from the American meaning. (From Mudcat Discussion Forum)
BLUE-TAIL FLY- Ruth Crawford Seeger:
Big old owl with eyes so bright,
On many a dark and starry night.
I've often heard my true love say,
Sing all night and sleep all day.
CHORUS: Jim crack corn, I don't care;
Jim crack corn, I don't care,
Jim crack corn, I don't care
Old Master's gone away
Said the blackbird to the crow,
Down to the cornfield let us go;
Pulling up corn has been our trade,
Ever since Adam and Eve was made.
Said the she drake to the crane:
When do you think we'll have some rain?
The farm's so muddy and the brook so dry,
If it wasn't for tadpoles, we'd all die.
When I was a boy I used to wait
On Master's table and pass the plate,
Hand round the bottle when he got dry,
And brush away the blue-tailed fly.
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