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Going To London/Swapping Song/Inch Along/Indian Nation
Old-time fiddle tune; song.
ARTIST: Noah Beaver
Listen:
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
EARLIEST DATE: 1800s; First recorded in 1927 by the Carolina Tar Heels. Bonnie Blue Eyes was first reported by Louise Rand Bacom in 1910 JOAFL. The version she collected in 1907 was at least ten years older- putting the date back in the late 1800s.
RECORDING INFO: Going to London
Rt - Cotton-Eyed Joe
Indian Creek Delta Boys. Indian Creek Delta Boys, Davis Unlimited DU 33029, LP (1976), trk# 13
Inch/Inching Along [Me IV-E 16]
Rm - Cotton-Eyed Joe ; Indian Nation
Crase, James. Mountain Music of Kentucky, Smithsonian/Folkways SF 40077, CD (1996), trk# 2.58 [1959]
Molsky, Bruce. Warring Cats, Yodel-Ay-Hee 011, Cas (1993), trk# 2
Robic, A; and the Exertions. Old Time Music Dance Party, Flying Fish FF 415, LP (1987), trk# 1b
Sutherland, Pete. Poor Man's Dream, Flying Fish FF 336, LP (1984), trk# 7
Inching Along
Work, John W. / American Negro Songs and Spirituals, Dover, Bk (1998/1940), p125
Fisk Jubilee Singers. Marsh, J. B. T. / Story of the Jubilee Singers, Houghton Mifflin, Bk (1880), p186/# 67
Johnny Inch/Inchin' Along [Me IV-E 16]
Us - Susan Lollar on Judio
Keep A-Inching Along
Lomax, Alan / Folksongs of North America, Doubleday Dolphin, Sof (1975/1960), p456/#239
Rodeheaver, Homer (ed.) / Rodeheaver's Negro Spirituals, Rodeheaver, Fol (1923), #46
Nigger Inch/Inchin' Along [Me IV-E 16]
Us - Susan Lollar on Judio
RELATED TO: "Swamping Song" (melody); “Keep A-Inching Along ”; "Susan Lollar on Judio," "Flatwoods," "Indian Nation" "Miss Brown" "Swamp Cat Rag"
OTHER NAMES: “Inch Along;” "Flatwoods," "Indian Nation" "Miss Brown" "Swamp Cat Rag"
PRINT SOURCES: “
Traditional Ballad Index Notes on Swapping Song or Swamping Boy, The
DESCRIPTION: The Swapping Boy (sets out for London to get a wife. He swaps wife, or the wheelbarrow he took her home in, for a) horse, which he swaps for a cow, and so forth, for a cheaper animal each time, until he ends with a mole which "went straight to its hole"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (_Gammer Gurton's Garland: or, The Nursery Parnassus_, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: animal humorous commerce
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Eddy 93, "The Swapping Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 256, "Went to the River" (1 text, 1 tune, a much degraded form with a different chorus and some floating verses)
BrownII 196, "Swapping Songs" (4 text plus 2 excerpts, but "E" and "F" are "Hush Little Baby"; the "C" excerpt is unidentifiable from the description)
BrownIII 131, "When I Was a Little Boy" (1 text plus mention of 2 more, with only the first verses about fetching the wife from London)
JHCoxIIB, #19A-B, pp. 166-169, "The Foolish Boy," "Johnny Bobeens" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Kennedy 312, "Wim-Wam-Waddles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman-Brockway II, p. 10, "The Swapping Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire, pp. 78-79, "The Swapping Song" (1 text)
SharpAp 217, "The Foolish Boy" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 72, "The Swapping Song (The Foolish Boy)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 1, "The Swapping Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 243, "Down by the Brook" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase, pp. 174-175, "The Swapping Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert, pp. 44-45, "Wing Wang Waddle" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 70-71, "Foolish Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H732, p. 57, "My Grandfather Died" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan8 1696, "I Sell't the Horse an' I Bocht a Coo" (2 texts)
Opie-Oxford2 156, "My Father He Died, But I Can't Tell You How" (1 text)
Opie-Oxford2 71, "When I was a little boy I lived by myself" (2 texts); 156, "My father he died, but I can't tell you how" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #7, pp. 29-30, "(When I was a little boy)"; #115, p. 96, "(My father he died, but I can't tell you how)"
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 23, "(His father died)" (1 short text); 163, "O, when I was a wee thing" (1 short text, with only the verses about "When I was a wee thing" and the fetching home of a wife in a wheelbarrow)
ST E093 (Full)
Roud #469
RECORDINGS:
Anne, Judy & Zeke Canova, "The Poor Little Thing Cried Mammy" (Oriole 8044/Perfect 12685/Regal 10299, 1931); as the "Three Georgia Crackers," "Poor Little Thing Cried Mammy" (Columbia 15653-D, 1931; rec. 1930; on CrowTold01)
Harry Greening & chorus of Dorsetshire Mummers, "The Foolish Boy" (on FSB10)
Bradley Kincaid, "The Swapping Song" (Champion 15466 [as Dan Hughey]/Silvertone 5188/Supertone 9209, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Brown Dog"
cf. "Mary Mack (I)" (plot)
cf. "Old John Wallis" (lyrics)
cf. "Pirn-Taed Jockie" (theme: bad bargains)
NOTES: Eddy writes of this song, "Most texts are like the above in blending two separate songs, 'When I Was a Little Boy' and 'Swapping Song.' The first story, based, in all likelihood, upon Wat Tyler's Rebellion of 1381 in England, continues through four stanzas."
That two songs are combined here is very likely; Kennedy's version and others (including versions back to Gammer Gurton's Garland) omit the trip to London to fetch a wife, while we find a youth setting out for London to find a wife as a separate item in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, Volume II, of c. 1744. But whether this should be tied to the Kentish rebellion of 1381 can be questioned. The Opies, while quoting the first half, make no mention of Wat Tyler, and say it uses the tune of "John Anderson my Jo," which could hardly go back to an English event of 1381. - RBW
Perhaps "The Swapping Boy" should be split between the Opie-Oxford2 71/Eddy/BrownIII 131 ("When I was a little boy I lived by myself") songs and the Opie-Oxford2 156/Henry H732("My father he died, but I can't tell you how") songs. The description for "My Father Died" might be: Singer inherits his grandfather's horses. He sells the horses to buy a cow and sells and buys the cow, a calf, a pig, a dog, and a cat that runs off after a rat. "My grandfather left me all he did own, And I don't know how it is, but I'm here by my lone." The end of Opie-Oxford2 156 is more disastrous: "I sold my cat and bought me a mouse, But she fired her tail and burnt down my house." - BS
In the light of the above, I suppose I should separate these two songs -- but the result would be an even worse mess than lumping them, because the combination clearly exists as a song in its own right. Since it is possible that it's one song that split, and not two that coalesced, I'm keeping them together until we can find some clearer evidence of the history. With full acknowledgment that there are two highly independent parts.
We should also note that there is a fairly precise parallel to the swapping story in German. The Grimm tale of "Lucky Hans" [#83, "Hans im Gluck," from 1818] tells of a young man who, after completing an apprenticeship, is given a nugget of gold by his master. It is heavy enough that he trades it for a horse. The horse throws him, so he trades it for a cow. The cow gives no milk, so he trades it for a pig. The pig is said to be stolen, so he trades it for a goose. He trades that for a slightly used grindstone/whetstone, hoping thereby to gain wealth -- then drops the stone in the well and gives up and goes home.
Hans Christian Anderson also had something similar, but I know of no reason to think that it is traditional. The tale is usually translated under a title such as "What the Old Man Does Is Always Right." The gimmick is the same -- the old man goes out to sell his horse, and makes a series of trades. But, except that in the first trade, the man exchanges his horse for a cow, there is little other similarity; he ends up with a collection of withered apples. And the emphasis of the tale is not on the trading but on the psychology of the man and his wife.
There is also at least one other English swapping rhyme, found in Peter and Iona Opie, I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth, #58, beginning, "I went downtown To meet Mrs. Brown, She gave me a nickel to buy a pickle. The pickle was sour; I bought me a flower." And so forth. - RBW
NOTES: According to Gus Meade, Noah Beavers' "Going To London" is an instrumental melody of the "Swapping song" (Lyrics Below). "Going To London" is related to "Inch Along" and "Indian Nation"
GOING TO LONDON: (Key of G): Noah Beavers. Though Noah plays a completely different tune he calls Cotton-Eyed Joe, the tune given here appears to be more widely known by that title. In fact, the verse and title appear to be the only difference. This version, however, is quite different from the Cotton-Eyed Joe played by Southeastern groups like the Skillet Lickers.
INDIAN NATION: The late Gus Meade calls this a variation on the old Kentucky tune NIGGER INCH ALONG and also said it was like GOIN' TO LONDON from Noah Beavers. Doc Roberts called it JOHNNY INCHIN' ALONG. There is a faint hint of COTTON EYED JOE and POOR LITTLE DARLIN (WOLVES A-HOWLIN') here. Alva Greene played this as INDIAN SQUAW. Art Stamper calls it TERRY FORK OF BALL because of the "N" word. Coarse section also smacks of Snake Chapman's PAT HIM ON THE BACK. Dorothy Scarborough,in NEGRO FOLK SONGS, cites a Negro spiritual in East Waco, Texas with the words "Keep a-inching along like a poor inch worm, Jesus will come bye and bye." Luther Strong and W H. Stepp both play this melody (more or less) and call it by the "N" name. It's interesting to note that Mona, Ed's daughter, says Ed was color-blind towards Afro-Americans.
THE SWAPPING SONG
by Bob Waltz
(Originally published: Inside Bluegrass, June, 2009)
It's not often that one bouncy little kids' song can teach you both economics and physics, but this song comes pretty close. It's the story of a young man who engaged in a series of trades, and gradually lost most of what he started with. This illustrates the second-most important physical law in the universe, the second law of thermodynamics -- which, to state it informally, says that all transfers of energy involve some waste. To put it in economic terms, all transactions have overhead. If all you do is shuffle money from here to there, eventually you'll waste it all (or the value of the money will be inflated away). This is the old "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch" principle. Which, unfortunately, a lot of hedge fund managers and bankers forgot, and a lot of us are going broke as a result.
This song probably originated in Britain, where it goes by names such as The Foolish Boy or Wim-Wam-Waddles. This has prompted a lot of speculation about its origin -- including even a tale that it goes back to Wat Tyler's Rebellion of 1381. (The only evidence for this that I can see is that the singer goes to London. Tyler's peasants did go to London, to try to get concessions out of the government of Richard II. But Tyler ended up dead, and there were no concessions. I flatly don't believe the link. I find it easier to believe that it is a combination of two songs, one about hunting a wife and the other about a series of swaps. But most surviving versions include both plots.)
But if the song is British in origin, it is very common in the United States as well; Cox, Sharp, Brown, Wyman, Camaiaire, and others had versions. Nearly every Appalachian state has at least one attestation. There is also an old-time recording by Bradley Kincaid.
I learned the song from a recording by John Langstaff, whose verson seems to have been based on one collected by Olive Dame Campbell in Kentucky. Indeed, based on what information is available, it may well have come from a member of the Ritchie family; the location is right, and Jean Ritchie sings a very similar version. Jean in her book, Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians, says that her family used it for baby bouncing.
I've probably hacked this up a little; the Campbell transcription has an extra beat in it (the fourth measure, in the transcripton in Sharp & Karpeles, 80 English Folk Songs, is written as a measure in 2/4 and then one in 3/4!). The Ritchie transcription is closer to mine, but has some differences in the tones. My lyrics also show some variations from both Campbell's and Ritchie's. So I may have folk processed this a little. If you know one of the other sources, you can always folk process it back!
[CLICK HERE FOR SHEET MUSIC (pdf file)]
Complete Lyrics:
When I was a little boy, I lived by myself
And all the bread and cheese I had I laid them on the shelf.
Chorus:
To my wim-wam-waddle, To my Jack Straw straddle,
To my Johnny's got his fiddle And he's going on home.
The rats and the mice, they led me such a life,
I had to go to London to get me a wife.
The ruts were so wide and the lanes were so narrow,
I had to bring her home in an old wheelbarrow.
I swapped my wheelbarrow, got me a horse,
And then I rode from cross to cross.
I swapped my horse and got me a mare,
And then I rode from fair to fair.
I swapped my mare and got me a cow,
But in that trade I didn 't know how.
I swapped my cow and I got me a calf,
And in that trade I just lost half.
I swapped my calf and got me a mule.
And then I rode like a silly old fool.
1 swapped my mule and I got me a sheep
And then I worked myself to sleep.
I swapped my sheep and got me a hen,
And O what a pretty thing I had then.
I swapped my hen and got me a mole
And the tiny thing went straight for its hole.
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