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BLUE-TAILED FLY
Breakdown and song tune by Daniel Decatur Emmett;
ARTIST: Leadbelly (Jimmie, Crack Corn) from Smithsonian Folkways 40068;
Listen: Leadbelly; 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 (Perhaps “Jimmie Crack Corn” is dervived from Give Me (Gimme) Cracked Corn (Whiskey).
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- Leadbelly
Listen: Leadbelly; Blue-Tail Fly
CHORUS: Jimmy, crack corn, and I don’t care.
Jimmy, crack corn, and I don’t care,
Jimmy, crack corn, and I don’t care,
Master's gone away.
Rod-a, he ride him and he jumped a ditch,
He ride-a, he rode him, and the pony did pitch.
The pony, he felt a little bit shy,
‘Cause he’s bitten by that blue-tailed fly. (CHORUS)
When I went down in Louisiana,
I stayed a little while in Texarkana.
Every once in a while, I felt a little bit shy
‘Cause I- was bitten by that blue-tailed fly. (CHORUS)
I was on my to Shreveport, Louisiana,
Then I stopped out in Casipana.
And I felt a little bit shy,
‘Cause I was bitten by that blue-tailed fly. (CHORUS)
When I was drivin’ along in my car
I was stoppin’ most anywhere.
Once in while I look up in the sky
‘Cause I was- bitten by that blue-tailed fly. (CHORUS)
Once in a while I do a little bit o’dance,
And some of the people come around and says, "Will you allow me a little chance?
But every once in a while I feel a little bit shy
‘Cause I was bitten by that blue-tailed fly.
(CHORUS) (2x)
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