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Blue Tail Fly- Original Minstrel Versions
Breakdown and song tune by Daniel Decatur Emmett;
ARTIST: The Virginia Minstrels, No. 5. (1846); Also two versions New Negro Forget-Me-Not Songster
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-The Virginia Minstrels, No. 5. (1846)
When I was young a us'd to wait
On Massa and hand him de plate;
Pass down the bottle when he git dry,
And bresh away de blue tail fly.
CHORUS: Jim crack corn I don't care,
Jim crack corn I don't care,
Jim crack corn I don't care,
Old Massa gone away.
Den arter dinner massa sleep,
He bid dis niggar vigil keep;
An' when he gwine to shut his eye,
He tell me watch de blue tail fly.
(CHORUS)
An' when he ride in de arternoon,
I foiler wid a hickory broom;
De poney being berry shy,
When bitten by de blue tail fly.
(CHORUS)
One day he rode aroun' de farm,
De flies so numerous dey did swarm;
One chance to bite 'im on the thigh,
De debble take dat blu tail fly.
(CHORUS)
De poney run, he jump an' pitch,
An' tumble massa in de ditch;
He died, an' de jury wonder'd why
De verdic was de blue tail fly.
(CHORUS)
Dey laid 'im under a 'simmon tree,
His epitaph am dar to see:
'Beneath did stone I'm forced to lie,
All by means ob de blue tail fly.'
(CHORUS)
Ole massa gone, now let 'im rest,
Dey say all tings am for the best;
I nebber forget till de day I die,
Ole massa an' dat blue tail fly.
(CHORUS)
DE NEW ELITE TAIL'D FLY- 1948; New Negro Forget-Me-Not Songster
BY AN U. S. N. OFFICER.
If you should go, in summer time,
To Souf Carolina's sultry clime.
An' in de shade you chance to lie,
You 'll soon find out de blue tail fly.
CHORUS: An' scratch 'um wid a brier too.
Dar's many kind ob curious tings,
From different sort ob insek springs ;
Some hatch in June, an' some July,
But August fetches de blue tail fly,
An' scratch 'um wid a brier too.
When I was young, I use to wait
On Massa's table, an' hand de plate,
I 'd pass de bottle when him dry,
Den brush away de blue tail fly,
An' scratch 'um wid a brier too.
Den arter dinna Massa sleep,
He bid dis nigga vigil keep,
An' when him gwine to shut his eye,
He tell me wotch de blue tail fly
An' scratch 'um wid a brier too.
When him ride in de arternoon,
I foller wid a hickory broom;
De pony it being berry shy
When bitten by de blue tail fly.
An' scratch 'um wid a brier too.
One day lie rode aroun' de farm,
De flies so numerous dey did swann.
An' tho' wid all my might I try,
I couldn't keep off de blue tail fly,
An' scratch 'um wid a brier toe.
De pony rear, de pony pitch,
An' fling ole Massa in de ditch;
De jury wonder'd how he die,
Au' de verdict was, de blue tail fly.
An' scratch 'urn wid a brier too.
JINNY CRACK CORN- 1848 New Negro Songster
When I was young, I used to wait
On Massa's table, an' hand de plate,
I'd pass de bottle ober dar,
So, Jinny Crack Com, I don't care.
CHORUS: So, Jinny Crack Corn, I don't care,
Jinny Crack Corn, I don't care,
Jinny Crack Corn, I don't care,
For Massa's gone away.
Den arter dinner Massa sleep,
He make dis nigga vigils keep,
An' when him sleepin' in de chair,
Den Jinny Crack Corn, I don't care,
Cho.—So, Jinny, etc.
Den when he ride in de arteraoon,
I foller wid a hickory broom,
De ponies being so berry spare,
So, Jinny Crack Corn, I don't care.
Cho.—So, Jinny, etc.
Ole Massa's dead, now let him rest-
Dey say all tings am for de best;
I hope you den will not despair,
So, Jinny Crack Corn, I don't care.
Cho.—So, Jinny, etc.
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