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Parsley Girls
Old-Time Fiddle beakdown and song USA; Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri.
ARTIST: from Collins Family- Thede (The Fiddle Book).
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: 1930s;
RECORDING INFO:
OTHER NAMES: unknown
SOURCES: Thede; Ceolas; Folk Index;
NOTES: A Major. AEAC#. AABB. Source for notated version: the Collins Family (Oklahoma) [Thede]. Thede relates that Billy Parsley was an engineer on the railroad in Douglas County, Missouri, at the turn of the 20th century. Parsley, it seems, was reknowned for his tall tales and yarns as well as for his ability to dispose of tobacco juices "without moving any part of the anatomy except the lips and tongue." Notwithstanding these convivial talents, he was a man of "rugged and violent nature," who was not particularly enamoured of the young men who hung about his house seeking the company of his numerous daughters. However, when he was on his runs it was an occassion for merriment at home and "his house would be responding to music, song, and dance." Out of these gatherings came a folk processed song, "The Parsley Girls."
"The Parsley Girls" from Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; pgs. 93-95:
Oh them girls of Old Bill Parsly, I-de I-de I-de,
Oh them girls of Old Bill Parsley, I-de I-de I-de;
Girls in the cook house, boys in the parlor, I-de I-de-de die-de.
Oh Boys in the cook house, girls in the parlor
Oh them girls of Bill Parsley.
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