[WARNING: racial stereotypes. No hatred is intended. Presented in original form as a part of music history.]
a 1901 popular song
words by Henry Jackson
music by Scott Joplin
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The sheet music:
Accompaniment:
Lyrics
1. An old darkey lay a sleeping in his northern home one night
He was dreaming of the sunny south where first he saw the light
You could tell he was as happy as a bird up in a tree
By the smile so bright up on his face that you could plainly see
But when this darkey did awake and saw ’twas all a dream
He called his little children to his side
And when they said “My daddy dear, what makes you look so pleased?”
These are the words to them he did reply
Chorus
“I am thinking of my pickaninny days
And tonight my heart is filled with untold joy
They bring to me sweet mem’ries long gone bye
When I was a pickaninny boy
And could they but only come again
The Lord forever I will praise
Now that is why I look so pleased
I am thinking of my pickaninny days”
2. Since this darkey told of boyhood days, it has been many a year
And now the old man’s laid away his mem’ry still is here
His children now are grown in age and have pickanninies, too
Every evening when their work is o’er, they think of their father true
All are gathered ’round the fireside now and talking of the past
And of their dad in Heaven far away
For when they sat at his bedside just as he breathed his last
These are the gentle words they heard him say
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Sung here by Fred Feild: