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Jaybird Died with the Whooping Cough/Jaybird
Old-Time, Breakdown. USA; Tennessee, Virginia.
ARTIST: from "The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore; the folklore of North Carolina, collected by Dr. Frank C. Brown during the years 1912 to 1943, in collaboration with the North Carolina Folklore Society"
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: Mid 1800’s (1846)
RECORDING INFO: County 773, John Ashby and the Free State Ramblers - "Fiddling by the Hearth." Fretless 144, Double Decker String Band- "Giddyap Napoleon." Marimac 9008, The Lazy Aces - "Still Lazy After All These Years" (1986. Learned from John Ashby via Peter Honig). Ashby, John; and the Free State Ramblers. Fiddling by the Hearth, County 773, LP (1979), cut# 6.
OTHER NAMES: Jaybird Died of the Whooping Cough/ The Jaybird
FLOATING LYRICS: “Jaybird;” “Limber Jim;” “Bile Them Cabbage Down;” “Buck-eye Jim”
SOURCES: Wolfe states older printed sources include White (243), Brown (3:201), Browne (447), and an early Tennessee variant appears in the Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin 2, pg. 30. John Ashby (1915-1979, north Va.) via the Double Decker String Band (Kuntz); John Ashby [Phillips]. Kuntz (Ragged But Right), 1987; pg. 347-348. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 1, 1994; pg. 122.
NOTES: G Major. Standard. AABB. Charles Wolfe (1991) states that printed versions of this song/tune have been found as far back as 1846, and that it has been fairly widely collected from both black (See: Jaybird Died of the Whooping Cough- Version 2 and 3) and white sources. A similar line appears in the minstrel lyrics to Jim Along Josie:
Now way down south, not very far off,
A bullfrog died wid de hooping cough,
And de other side of Mississippi as you must know,
Dare’s where I was christen’d Jim Along Joe.
The common verse to “Jaybird Died with the Whooping Cough” is also found in Lomax’s “Bile Them Cabbage Down:”
Jaybird died of the whoopin' cough,
Sparrow died of the colic.
'Long come a frog with a fiddle on his back
Inquirin' his way to the frolic.
Another song that has the “whooping cough” lyrics is “Limber Jim:” Way down yonder in a sycamore trough/ An old lady died with the whoopin'-cough.
The Jaybird "The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore; the folklore of North Carolina, collected by Dr. Frank C. Brown during the years 1912 to 1943, in collaboration with the North Carolina Folklore Society"
The Jaybird
The jay, with his confidence and his impudence, appears to have struck the folk fancy, especially of the Negroes. His death by whooping-cough is sung in South Carolina (JAFL xmv 425), Alabama (ANFS 243), and Mississippi (JAFL xxvi 133-4), and is reported without specific location by Mrs. Richardson (AMS 99) and Talley {Negro Folk Rhymes 36). Snatches more or less like the second stanza of A are known in Virginia (FSV 201), Tennessee (BTFLS II 30), North Carolina (JAFL xxvi 131), Georgia (SharpK 11 305), and Iowa (JAFL xliv 170), as a square-dance song in the Midwest (Ford, Traditional Music of America 96), and as sung by Negroes in the South (Talley 14-15, TNFS 191 ).
A. 'Jay Bird Died with the Whoopingcough.' Obtained in 1927 by Jullan P. Boyd from Minnie Lee, pupil in the school at Alliance, Pamlico county.
1. Jay bird died with the whoopingcough.
Black bird died with the colic;
'Long came a toad-frog with his tail bobbed off
And that broke up the frolic.
2. He winked at me and I winked at him.
I picked up a piece o' brickbat and hit him on the chin.
He says, 'Hey, little man, don't do that again !'
And that broke up the frolic.
B. 'Jaybird Died with the Whoopingcough.' Communicated hy Thomas Smith of Zionville, Watauga county, probably in 1913 or thereabouts, as a "dance song — fiddle and banjo," known to have been sung and played there "nearly eighty years ago."
Jaybird died with tlie whoopingcough.
Sparrow died with the colic.
On came a frog with a fiddle cm his back
Inquiring the way to the frolic.
C. 'Way Down Yonder a Long Way Off.' Reported in 1914 by Charles R. Bagley of Moyock, Currituck county, as learned from his grandparents there.
Way down yonder, a long way off,
A jay bird died with the whooping cough.
Slilt shirt collar, three rows of stitches.
Square-toed boots and short-legged breeches.
D. No title. Reported by V. C. Royster of Wake county as having come down from before the Civil War — "personal recollections refreshed by talking with other old people."
A jay bird sat on a hickory limb.
He winked at ine, I winked at him.
I picked up a rock and hit him on the shin;
Says he, 'Okl fellow, don't you do that again.'
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