From the musical comedy “The Widow Jones”, 1894.
Words and music by Gussie L. Davis.
The sheet music:
I’ve Been Hoodoo’d – Sheet Music
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
I’ve been hoodoo’d, I’ve been hoodoo’d
Hoodoo’d, hoodoo’d, by a niggar voodoo
I’ve been hoodoo’d, I’ve been hoodoo’d
Hoodoo’d by a big black coon
1. A coon for me had a great infatuation
He wanted me to marry, but he had no situation
As soon as I refused, why the coon, he got wild
Says he, “I am bound for to hoodoo dis child”
Went and got a rabbit foot and burned it with a frog
Down in the hollow of an old burnt log
Right on the road where I had to pass along
Ever since den my head’s been wrong
My bones begin to ache, and my teeth begin to chatter
Went to a doctor and he couldn’t tell the matter
Says he, ‘You’re a gone coon, you’re gone up the spout”
He looked at my head, and my hair fell out;
Nobody knows how funny I feel
Even the husk fell off my heel
Refrain
I’ve been hoodoo’d, I’ve been hoodoo’d
Hoodoo’d, hoodoo’d, by a niggar voodoo
I’ve been hoodoo’d, I’ve been hoodoo’d
Hoodoo’d by a big black coon
2. This same black coon had an awful disposition
He could do more tricks than Herman the Magician
My daddy he went out for to kill this black moke
The coon only laughed and he thought it a joke
Got all of the coons afraid to look him in the eye
Got lots of niggars that he’s taught to fly
All the police for this coon they had to search
He robbed a coon one night at church
He grabbed up a chicken and it wouldn’t even holler
Throw up his guffer and most anything would foller
It is very strange, but it ain’t no lie
I hope in my heart that this coon will die
For I can’t sleep, walk, talk nor eat
Guess I am dead, my heart don’t beat