[Disclaimer: racial stereotypes. No hatred is intended. This song is presented in its original form as part of American history.]
a 1846 popular minstrel song
words and music by Daniel Decatur Emmett
This song is also known as The Blue-Tail Fly. It is derived from African-American slave jingles. It was adopted as an Abolitionist song. In this form it was created for a minstrel show in 1846. It takes digs at indolent plantation owners in the South. It remained a familiar song for over a hundred years.
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The sheet music:
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Accompaniment by Werner Tomaschewski:
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Lyrics
1. When I was young I us’d to wait
On Massa and hand him de plate
Pass down de bottle when he git dry
And bresh away de blue tail fly
Chorus
Jim crack corn I don’t care
Jim crack corn I don’t care
Jim crack corn I don’t care
Ole Massa gone away
2. Den arter dinner massa sleep
He bid dis niggar vigil keep
An’ when he gwine to shut his eye
He tell me watch de blue tail fly
3. An’ when he ride in de arternoon
I foller wid a hickory broom
De poney being berry shy
When bitten by de blue tail fly
4. One day he rode aroun’ de farm
De flies so nummerous dey did swarm
One chance to bite ’im on the thigh
De debble take dat blue tail fly
5. De poney run, he jump an’ pitch
An’ tumble massa in de ditch
He died, an’ de jury wonder’d why
De verdic was de blue tail fly
6. Dey laid ’im under a ’simmon tree
His epitaph am dar to see
“’Beneath dis stone I´m forced to lie
All by de means ob de blue tail fly”
7. Ole massa gone, now let ’im rest
Dey say all tings am for de best
I nebber forget till de day I die
Ole massa an’ dat blue tail fly
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Sung here by Fred Feild: