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Camptown Races
American, Country Dance Tune; English, North-West Morris Tune (4/4 time), Words and Melody by Stephen Foster- 1849.
ARTIST: Stephen Foster (probably from the “Sacramento” version or a folk source). Original Text: Foster's Plantation Melodies as sung by the Christy & Campbell Minstrels and New Orleans Serenaders
Listen: Billy Murray- Camptown Races 1911
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: 1849;
RECORDING INFO: Pete Seeger, "Camptown Races" (on PeteSeeger24); Atkins, Chet. Chet Atkins and his Guitar, RCA Camden CAS 659(e), LP (1964), cut#B.05c; Fahey, John. Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death, Takoma R-9015, LP (196?), cut# 12b; Fluharty, Russell. West Virginia Heritage, Page SLP 601, LP (197?), cut#B.05; Hamilton, Mark. Songs and Tunes from Wolf Run, Sampler 9223, Cas (1992), cut# 13 (First Four Right and Left, Sides Sashay); Homer and the Barnstormers. Blue Grass Banjos - Flaming Banjos, Alshire 2-120-1/2, LP (197?), cut#1B.04; Jackson, Bill. Steamboat Coming, National Geographic Soc. 07787, LP (1976), cut# 11; Leigh, Bonnie. Down in the Shady Grove, Maywind K56-03, CD (1998), cut# 7e.
SOURCES: R.Jackson-19CPop, pp. 39-42; Cazden (Dances from Woodland), 1945; pg. 22. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1964; pg. 14. Wade (Mally's North West Morris Book), 1988; Pg. 21. Read 'Em and Weep, Arco, Sof (1959/1926), p 41; Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc;
OTHER NAMES: "Hoodah Day," "Banks of Sacramento," “Gwine to Run All Night,” Sacramento;" "Lincoln Hoss and Stephen A." “Ho! For Californ-I-O” “Bobtail Hoss/Horse” “ Californio”. Not to be confused with “New Camptown Races” composed by mandolinist Frank Wakefield about 1957 on Folkways FA 2492, New Lost City Ramblers - "String Band Instrumentals" (1964).
NOTES: "G Major (Sweet, Wade): Standard. AB (Wade): AABB (Sweet). Wade's version is the famous Stephen Foster song melody translated to the North-West Morris tradition (for use with either a polka or single step). In America there is a singing call to the tune for square dancers. Apparently, the melody was collected as a sea shanty called "Banks of Sacramento," whose origins were in the California Gold Rush of 1849. This seems to predate the Stephen Foster copyright, but the relation, if any, between the two is unclear." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
Spaeth in a A History of Popular Music in America, p. 107 notes that a "folk-song" called "Hoodah Day" is very similar to this song, and speculates that it or "Banks of Sacramento" could have been the original of the Foster song. Same tune in "Lincoln Hoss and Stephen A."
LYRICS:
De Camptown ladies sing dis song, Doo-dah! Doo-dah!
De Camptown racetrack five miles long, Oh! doo-dah day!
I come down dah wid my hat caved in, Doo-dah! doo-dah!
I go back home wid a pocket full of tin, Oh! doo-dah day!
Chorus: Gwine to run all night!
Gwine to run all day!
I’ll bet my money on de bobtail nag,
Somebody bet on de bay
De long tail filly and de big black hoss, Doo-dah! Doo-dah!
De fly de track and dey both cut across, Oh! doo-dah day!
De blind hoss sticken in a big mud hole, Doo-dah! doo-dah!
Can’t touch bottom wid a ten foot pole, Oh! doo-dah day!
Chorus:
Old muley cow come on to de track, Doo-dah! Doo-dah!
De bob-tail fling her ober his back, Oh! doo-dah day!
Den fly along like a rail-road car, Doo-dah! doo-dah!
Runnin’ a race wid a shootin’ star, Oh! doo-dah day!
Chorus:
See dem flyin’ on a ten mile heat, Doo-dah! Doo-dah!
Round de race track, den repeat, Oh! doo-dah day!
I win my money on de bob-tail nag, Doo-dah! doo-dah!
I keep my money in an old tow-bag, Oh! doo-dah day!
Chorus:
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