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Goin' Down To Town/Lynchburg Town
Old-Time, Breakdown, USA, Tennessee (Attributed to Frank Spencer- 1848);
ARTIST: From Brown Collection of NC Folklore
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: 1909 1848 Minstrel Song
RECORDING INFO: Lynchburg Town- Frank Spencer 1848; American Folk Songs for Children, Doubleday/Zephyr Books, Bk (1948), p.158 (Going Down to Town); American Songbag, Harcourt Brace Jovan..., Sof (1955), P145 (Going Down to Town); Cranberry Lake (Jug Band). Old-Time and Jugband Music, Swallowtail St-8, LP (1977), cut# 11; Ebenezer. Tell It To Me, Biograph RC-6007, LP (1975), cut# 16; Jones, Grandpa. 24 Great Country Songs, King 967, LP (1975), cut#A.05 (Going Down Town); Mainer, Wade. From the Maple on the Hill, Old Homestead OHTRS 4000, LP (1976), cut#D.05; Mainer, Wade; and the Morris Brothers. Good Time Music. National Folk Festival, Philo 1028, LP (1975), cut#A.03; Morse, Peter. Goin' Down to Town, Philips PHM 200-059, LP (196?), cut#A.01 (Going Down to Town); Schilling, Jean. Old Traditions, Traditional JS-5117, LP (196?), cut#A.02 (Who's Going Down to Town); Seeger, Peggy And Mike. American Folk Songs for Children, Rounder 8001/8002/8003, LP (1977), cut# 74 (Going Down to Town); Sexton, Morgan. Shady Grove, June Appal JA 0066C, Cas (1992), cut# 8 (Going Down in Town); Sexton, Morgan. Rock Dust, June Appal JA 0055, LP (1989), cut# 17 (Going Down in Town); Smith, Ralph Lee. Dulcimer; More Old-Time and Traditional Music, Skyline DD-106, LP (1975), cut# 15 (Richmond Town); Staines, Bill. Just Play One Tune More, Folk Legacy C-066, Cas (1986), cut#B.01; Warner, Frank. Our Singing Heritage. Vol III, Elektra EKL-153, LP (1958), cut#A.03;
Lynchburg Town (Tune)- Don't Let Your Deal Go Down; Going Down to Lynchburg Town (tune) Craig, Gray; & The New North Carolina Ramblers. Blue Ridge Barn Dance, County 746, LP (1974), cut# 1; Poole, Charlie; and the Highlanders. Charlie Poole and the Highlanders, 1927-29, Puritan 3002, LP (196?), cut# 7
RELATED TO: “Knocking on the Henhouse Door;” ”Somebody's Tall and Handsome;” “Going Downtown" “Coon Dog," "Raccoon's Tail."
OTHER NAMES: “Going Down To Town;” "Lynchburg;" “I'm Going Down to Lynchburg Town;” “The Old Hat,” “Git Along Down To Town;”
SOURCES: Kuntz (Ragged but Right), 1987; pg. 19-20. Paramount 3171 (78 RPM), 1929, Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers. Biograph BLP 6005l, "The North Carolina Ramblers." Swallowtail 8, Cranberry Lake- "Old Time and Jug Band Music." Vocalation 5456 (78 RPM), Uncle Jimmy Thompson 1848-1931 (Texas, Tenn.) {1930} [learned by Uncle Jimmy on 8/4/1866, by his account]. Hilltop Records 6022, Uncle Jimmy Thompson. Warner 181, "Lynchburg Town" (2 texts, 1 tune); Sandburg, p. 145, "Goin' Down to Town" (1 text, 1 tune); Lomax-FSNA 260, "Lynchburg Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: A Major. Standard. AB. Uncle Jimmy Thompson, the elderly fiddler and "founder of the Grand Old Opry" remembered learning this tune (a "fine quadrille") as a young man in Texas on August 4, 1866 (Wolfe, 1997).
This song/tune is African-American in origin and enjoyed a life on the minstrel stage. Appearing as “The Original Lynchburg Town” by Frank Spencer, the song was published in New York, 1848, by Wm. Vanderbeek. It was popularized by the Christy Minstrels. Here’s a verse and chorus of the original minstrel lyrics:
Verse: You may talk as you will ob de good ole times,
Ob dandy Jim and Joe,
But we am de darkies for fun and glee,
And we sing and play de banjo.
Chorus: And we’re goin’ long down,
And we’re goin’ long down to town
And we’re goin’ long down to Lynchburg town,
To sing to de white folks dar.
The lyrics became part of the folk process until the last line of the chorus became "Toting my tobaccer down," or "To carry my tobacco down, " or "To sell my 'bacca down." An alternate chorus has the “Banjo” line: “To make my banjo sound” or “To lay my banjo down.”
Gwine down to Lynchburg town,
Take my 'baccer (tobacco) down.
(Or the Mississippi version)
I'm going on down to Vicksburg town
To make my banjo sound.
Lynchburg Town is constructed by “floating” verses from many different songs including “Old Joe Clark,” “Cindy” and “Bile Dem Cabbages Down” which are sung usually before each chorus.
As Carl Sandburg said of this song, "This is comic poetry, in a rough and tumble sense, put to a tune that is strictly rough and tumble."....Carl Sandburg (1927) in his "American Songbag," p. 145, under the title "Goin' Down To Town."
The Traditional Ballad Index (cufresno) only traces the Lynchburg town back to 1927, in spite of the fact that it has been reported numerous times by ballad and Negro song collectors. It originated with the minstrels, as so many songs did, and was taken up by both Negroes and whites and made their own. White, N. I., 1928, "American Negro Folk Songs," found it in "Negro Singers' Own Book," ca. 1846, in "A Going Along Down," p. 56, and "Lynchburg Town," p. 157; also in "Ethiopian Serenaders' Own Book," 1857(?) in "Lynchburg Town," p. 80; and in "Christy's Nigga Songster." The song persisted and it was collected in North Carolina from blacks in 1909 and 1915-1916 (I'm gwine down to Richmond town) and in 1925 (Vicksburg town) by Scarborough. (Dicho)
It is doubtful that Frank Spencer is the sole author of Lynchburg Town but he was the first to publish the song in 1848. It was probably learned from one of the many minstrel show performers. Since the title is “The Original Lynchburg Town,” it would seem likely that many other versions were sung in the 1840’s and this was the first “claim” to the popular song.
Lynchburg Town- Brown Collection of NC Folklore
415 Lynchburg Town
White in ANFS 178 gives an account of the relation of this song to the ante-bellum minstrel books and notes some of the reportings of it by later collectors. To the references there given may be added Kentucky (Shearin 20, OSC 60-2) and North Caro-
lina (JAFL XXII 249). The core of the various texts is the refrain "going down town" to sell — to chaw — his tobacco down. The name of the town may vary; and so may the matter of the stanzas that make up the different versions. Like 'Old Joe Clark,' which equally admits a diversity of matter in its various versions, it has been used as a play-party song; see the McLendon finding list, SFLQ VIII 215. For other occurrences of the first stanzas of A and B, see Nos. 161-64, above.
A. 'Get on Down to Richmond Town.' Obtained in 1927 by Julian P. Boyd from Minnie Lee, one of his pupils in the school at Alliance, Pamlico county. As various in content as some of the versions of 'Old Joe Clark.'
Dr. White writes on tho manuscript that most of the stanzas and their histories can be traced tln-on.uli the index of first linos in ANFS.
1 A raccoon has a bushy tail
A possum tail am bare;
Rabbit he come skippin' 'long,
He had none to spare.
Chorus: Get on down town,
Get on down town.
Get on down to Richmond town
And carry my 'baccy down !
2 My old mistress had a cow,
I 'member day she was bo'n,
It takes a jay bird a thousand years
To fly from ho'n to ho'n !
3 I wouldn't marry a po' gal,
I'll tell you the reason why:
Her neck's so long and stringy
I'm afraid she'd never die !
4 God almighty made this world,
And then he made a whale ;
And then he made a fat raccoon
With a ring around his tail.
5 Raccoon is a cunning thing ;
He travel in de dark.
He never thinks to climb a tree
Till he hears old Growler bark.
6 My old mistress had a mule.
His name was Gilbert Brown.
Every tooth in Gilbert's head
Would cover an acre of ground.
B. 'Get Along Down Town.' Contributed, apparently in 1921 or 1922, by
the Reverend L. D. Hayman of Elizabeth City, Pasquotank county. With
the tune.
1. Possum up the 'simmon tree.
Raccoon on the ground.
Raccoon said to possum:
'Hand some 'simmons down!'
Chorus: Get 'long down town,
Get 'long down town,
Get "long down Newburg town,
Take my terbacker down.
2 Raccoon is a migbty man.
Totes a bushy tail.
Steals all tbe farmer's corn,
And shucks it on the rail.
3 Raccoon totes a busby tail,
Possum he goes bare ;
Rabbit he come hopping by,
Ain't got none to spare.
C. 'Lynchburg Town.' Contributed by Miss Amy Henderson of Worry, Burke county, in 1914. The version is defective at the end.
1 I'm gwine down to town,
I'm gwine down to town.
I'm gwine down to Lynchburg town
To take my bacca down.
2 Bacca sellin' high.
Dollar and a half a pound,
A great big knife to cut it up
And a little gal to tote it round.
3 Somebody stole my good coon dog.
I wish they'd bring him back ;
Run the big niggers over the fence,
The little ones through the crack.
4 Marster had an old gray mule
................
D. 'Down to Lynchburg Town.' From J. H. Burrus of Weaverville, Bun-
combe county, in 1922, with tlie notation: "Used for any old dance, such
as Virginia break-down, the singing being accompanied by the music on
an instrument, usually a banjo."
1. If I had a scolding wife
I'd whip her, sure as she's born;
I'd take her down to Lynchburg town
And trade her off for corn.
Chorus: Oh, I'm going down to town.
Oh, I'm going down to town,
Oh, I'm going clown to Lynchburg town
To carry my tobacco down.
I went on down to town,
I didn't aim to stay;
I laid my head in a pretty girl's lap
And I could not get away.
E. 'Lynchburg Town.' From the Reverend A. J. Burrus, Cliffside, Rutherford county. With the music. The chorus as in D and a single stanza much the same as the first in D:
If I had a sporting [v. I. scolding] wife
I'd whip her, sure's she's born.
I'd whip her down to Lynchburg town
And bid her ofi, of course.
F. T'se Gwine Down to Town.' From W. B. Leake, student at Trinity
College. Merely the chorus, as in D.
G. 'Git Along Down Town." From Lucille Cheek of Chatham county.
Merely the chorus, as in D.
H. 'Going Down to Town.' Published by Louise Rand Bascom in JAFL XXII 249 with the remark that "it is similar in character to the 'Arkansaw Traveler,' and the fourth verse [of each stanza] is always the invention of the singer. It runs on endlessly, and begins thus: — "
I'm goin' down to town,
I'm goin' down to town,
I'm goin' down to town,
To chaw my terbacco down.
Git along down town,
Git along down town,
Git along down town,
To bile that cabbage down.
I. No title. Reported by Mrs. Nilla Lancaster, Wayne county. Only the chorus, three lines, slightly different from tlie preceding forms at the end:
Carry my bacco down to town,
Down to town, down to town.
Trade it off for wine.
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