SOME TYPICAL NEGRO TUNES
We have pointed out again and again the utter futility of trying to
describe accurately the singing of a group of Negroes when they are
at their best. A group of twenty workers singing, carrying various
parts, suiting song to work, and vying with one another for supremacy
in variations and innovations--this is a scene which defies musical
notation and description. And yet the picture which we have tried
to present in this volume would certainly be incomplete without the
addition of some of the simple melodies of typical workaday songs. They
are added, therefore, merely as final touches to the picture rather
than as attempts to reproduce the complex harmonies of Negro songs.
Heretofore the spirituals have received most of the attention of those
who were working toward the preservation of Negro music. The secular
songs have nothing like the standardization of words and music that the
spirituals have, simply because they have not been preserved. It is
inevitable, however, that due attention will be given to Negro secular
music. Indeed much has recently been done toward that end.[95] But the
task of recording the majority of Negro secular tunes is yet to be
done. It is to be hoped that the forthcoming volume of secular songs
which is being edited by James Weldon Johnson will go a long way toward
giving the Negro’s secular music the place which it deserves.
[95] For a discussion of the recent collections of Negro songs, see
Guy B. Johnson, “Some Recent Contributions to the Study of American
Negro Songs,” _Social Forces_, June, 1926.
Any one who has tried to record the music of Negro songs knows that it
is very difficult to do more than approximate the tunes as they are
actually sung. Several reasons may be cited to account for this. In the
first place, there are slurs and minute gradations in pitch in Negro
songs which it is impossible to represent in ordinary musical notation.
Some of these effects can be reproduced on a stringed instrument, but
they cannot be shown on a musical scale which is only divided into
half-step changes of pitch. A notation in the form of curved lines
would come nearer representing the Negro’s singing than does the system
of definite notes along a staff. It is what the Negro sings between the
lines and spaces that makes his music so difficult to record.
Another factor which must be reckoned with is the inconsistency of
the singer. When the recorder thinks that he has finally succeeded in
getting a phrase down correctly and asks the singer to repeat it “just
one more time,” he often finds that the response is quite different
from any previous rendition. Requests for further repetition may bring
out still other variations or a return to the previous version. Again,
after the notation has been made from the singing of the first stanza
of a song, the collector may be chagrined to find that none of the
other stanzas is sung to exactly the same tune. The variations are not
marked. They are elusive and teasing, and they add beauty to the song.
How often the song collector wishes for some instrument which will
record group singing in its native haunts! He cannot hope to catch
by ear alone all of the parts--and there are undoubtedly six or
eight of many of these songs--that go into the making of those rare
harmonies which only a group of Negro workers can produce. If he
coaxes the singers to keep repeating their song, some of them become
self-conscious and drop out. Perhaps the whole group will refuse to
sing any more. If perchance he gets one or two singers to give him some
special help, he gets but a suggestion of the group effect. He must be
contented with securing the leading part of the song and harmonizing it
later as best he can.
So these rare work harmonies have never been faithfully reproduced in
musical notation.[96] Rather than give an artificial harmonization to
the tunes recorded in this chapter, we are presenting only the leading
part of each song.
[96] The nearest approach ever made to accurate recording of such
songs is found in the work of the late Natalie Curtis Burlin. See her
_Negro Folk Songs_, Hampton Series, vols. III and IV.
Since several of the songs in this chapter are work songs, let us
examine for a moment the technique of the worker-singer. Many work
songs, of course, are not really work songs except in the sense
that they are sung during work. When the work is such that it does
not necessitate continuous rhythmic movements, one song is about as
good as another. But rhythmic movements, being especially adapted to
song accompaniment, have given rise to a distinct type of work song.
Digging, hammering, steel-driving, rowing, and many other kinds of
work fall in the rhythmic class. The technique for all of these is
practically the same.
Let us take digging as an example, since it is a very common type of
Negro labor in the South. Typical pick-song patterns are as follows:
I got a rainbow,
Rainbow ’roun’ my shoulder;
I got a rainbow,
Rainbow ’roun’ my shoulder;
’Tain’t gonna rain,
Lawd, Lawd, ’tain’t gonna rain.
Well, she asked me
In her parlor
An’ she cooled me
Wid her fan;
Lawd, she whispered
To her mother,
“Mama, I love
That dark-eyed man.”
Now in the type of song illustrated by the first of the above patterns
the strokes of the pick are not all of equal length. The rhythm of
the song demands a short stroke alternated with a longer stroke. In
the second type of song, however, the meter is such that all of the
strokes of the pick may be of equal length. At the end of each line
there is a cæsura or pause. This represents the time during which the
worker swings his pick from the upright position to the ground. When
the pick strikes the ground, the worker gives a grunt, loosens the
pick, and raises it. It is during this loosening and upward movement
that he sings. The down-stroke calls for much more effort than raising
the pick, so he rarely ever sings on the down-stroke. The time required
for a digging stroke is, however, shorter than the time required for
loosening and raising the pick, so that ordinarily the pauses in the
song are relatively brief.
It is in a group that the work song is to be heard at its best. When
a group is digging and singing, picks are swung in unison. On a few
occasions we have observed that one or two men took their strokes out
of unison in order to sing certain exclamations or echoes during the
pauses in the singing of their companions. This, however, is a rare
procedure, for the most striking variations in both music and words can
be introduced without breaking the unison of the strokes.
To call a song a pick song does not mean that it is not also a good
song for general purposes. _I Got a Rainbow_, _I Don’t Want No Trouble
Wid de Walker_, and other pick songs are quite effective when sung as
solos with guitar accompaniment. On the other hand, many general songs
can easily be converted into pick songs by slight changes in meter.[97]
[97] For other discussions of work songs, see Natalie Curtis Burlin,
_Negro Folk Songs_, vols. III and IV; Dorothy Scarborough, _On
the Trail of Negro Folk Songs_, chapter VIII; R. Emmet Kennedy,
_Mellows_; Odum and Johnson, _The Negro and His Songs_, chapter VIII.
A few of the tunes presented in the following pages are the older Negro
secular tunes. _Stagolee_ and _Railroad Bill_ are rarely heard now,
but they were common twenty years ago, and their music is included in
the present collection for whatever its preservation may be worth. The
words of _Stagolee_, _Railroad Bill_ and _She Asked Me in de Parlor_
are reprinted in full from _The Negro and His Songs_, but only the
first stanzas of the other songs are given, since the rest of the words
can be found in the preceding chapters of the present volume. The songs
in every case are written in the key in which they were sung.
[Music: STAGOLEE
Stag-o-lee, Stag-o-lee, What’s dat in yo’ grip? “Noth-in’ but my
Sunday clothes, I’m gonna take a trip.” Oh, dat man, bad man, Stagolee
done come.]
Stagolee, Stagolee, what’s dat in yo’ grip?
Nothin’ but my Sunday clothes, I’m gonna to take a trip,
Oh, dat man, bad man, Stagolee done come.
Stagolee, Stagolee, where you been so long?
I been out on de battle fiel’ shootin’ an’ havin’ fun.
Oh, dat man, _etc._
Stagolee was a bully man, an’ ev’ybody knowed
When dey seed Stagolee comin’ to give Stagolee de road.
Stagolee started out, he give his wife his han’;
“Goodby, darlin’, I’m goin’ to kill a man.”
Stagolee killed a man an’ laid him on de flo’,
What’s dat he kill him wid? Dat same ol’ fohty-fo’.
Stagolee killed man an’ laid him on his side,
What’s dat he kill him wid? Dat same ol’ fohty-five.
Out of house an’ down de street Stagolee did run,
In his hand he held a great big smok’n’ gun.
Stagolee, Stagolee, I’ll tell you what I’ll do;
If you’ll git me out’n dis trouble I’ll do as much for you.
Ain’t it a pity, ain’t it a shame?
Stagolee was shot, but he don’t want no name.
Stagolee, Stagolee, look what you done done:
Killed de best ol’ citerzen, now you’ll have to be hung.
Stagolee cried to de jury, “Please don’t take my life,
I have only three little children an’ one little lovin’ wife.”
[Music: RAILROAD BILL
Rail-road Bill might-y bad man, Shoot dem
lights out de brake-man’s han’, Was look-in’ for Rail-road Bill.]
Railroad Bill mighty bad man,
Shoot dem lights out o’ de brakeman’s han’,
Was lookin’ fer Railroad Bill.
Railroad Bill mighty bad man,
Shoot the lamps all off de stan’,
An’ it’s lookin’ fer Railroad Bill.
First on table, next on wall;
Ol’ corn whiskey cause of it all,
It’s lookin’ fer Railroad Bill.
Ol’ McMillan had a special train;
When he got there was shower of rain,
Wus lookin’ fer Railroad Bill.
Ev’ybody tol’ him he better turn back;
Railroad Bill wus goin’ down track,
An’ it’s lookin’ fer Railroad Bill.
Well, the policemen all dressed in blue,
Comin’ down sidewalk two by two,
Wus lookin’ fer Railroad Bill.
Railroad Bill had no wife,
Always lookin’ fer somebody’s life,
An’ it’s lookin’ fer Railroad Bill.
Railroad Bill was the worst ol’ coon:
Killed McMillan by de light o’ de moon,
It’s lookin’ fer Railroad Bill.
Ol’ Culpepper went up on number five,
Goin’ bring him back, dead or alive,
Wus lookin’ fer Railroad Bill.
[Music: SHE ASKED ME IN DE PARLOR
Well, she asked me in her par-lor An’ she cooled me wid her fan,
An’ she whis-pered to her moth-er, “O Ma, I love that dark-eyed man.”]
Well, she ask me in her parlor
An’ she cooled me wid her fan,
An’ she whispered to her mother,
“Mama, I love that dark-eyed man.”
Well, I ask her mother for her
An’ she said she was too young.
Lawd, I wished I never had seen her
An’ I wished she’d never been born.
Well, I led her to de altar,
An’ de preacher give his comman’,
An’ she swore by God that made her
That she never love another man.
[Music: JOHN HENRY
John Hen-ry was a steel-driv-in’ man, Ca’d his hammer all the
time,... An’ be-fo’ he’d let the steam-drill beat him down,
Die with the hammer in his han’, Die with the hammer in his han’.]
[Music: GOIN’ DOWN THAT LONESOME ROAD
Goin’ down that lone-some road, Oh, goin’ down that lone-some
road, An’ I won’t be treat-ed this-a way. Springs on my
bed done brok-en down, An’ I ain’t got no-where to lay my head.]
[Music: SHOOT THAT BUFFALO
Went down to Raleigh, Was nev-er there be-fo’, White folks on de
feather bed,
Nig-gers on de flo’. Shoot dat buf-fa, shoot dat lo, Shoot dat
buf-fa-lo.]
[Music: I GOT A RAINBOW
A
Oh, ev-’ry-where I, where I look this morn-in’, It looks like
rain, Lawd, O my Lawd, looks like rain, it looks like rain, Lawd, O my
Lawd,
looks like rain, Oh, ev-’ry-where I, where I look this morn-in’.]
[Music: I GOT A RAINBOW
B
Oh, ev-’ry-where I, Where I look dis morn-in’, Oh, ev-’ry-where I,
Where I look dis morn-in’, It look like rain, Lawd, Lawd, looks like
rain.]
[Music: I DON’T WANT NO TROUBLE WID DE WALKER
Oh, I don’t want no, Want no trouble wid de walk-er; Oh, I don’t want
no,
Want no trouble wid de walker. Wanta go home, Lawd, Lawd, wanta go
home.]
[Music: REASON I STAY ON DE JOB SO LONG
Reason I stay on de job so long, Gimme flam-donies an’ de cof-fee
strong.]
[Music: TOL’ MY CAP’N THAT MY FEET WAS COL’
Tol’ my cap’n that my feet was col’, “God damn yo’ feet, let the car
wheel roll.”]
[Music: IF I’D KNOWN MY CAP’N WAS BLIN’
If I’d a-known my cap’n was blin’, dar-lin’,
If I’d a-known my cap’n was blin’, dar-lin’, If I’d a-known my
cap’n was blin’, I wouldn’-a went to work till half-pas’ nine,
dar-lin’.]
[Music: I GOT A MULEY
I got a mul-ey, Mul-ey on the mountain, call him Jer-ry; Oh, I can
ride him, Ride him an-y time I wanta, All day long, Lawd, Lawd, all
day long.]
[Music: SHOT MY PISTOL IN THE HEART OF TOWN
O - o - o - h, L - a - a - w-d, Shot my pis-tol
in de heart o-town,......... Lawd, de big Chief holled, “Don’t you
blow me down.”]