Lyr Req: Lynchburg Town alternate lyrics

Subject: Lynchburg Town lyrics
From: GUEST,Michi
Date: 11 Sep 01 - 06:18 AM

I've transcribed a version of Lynchburg Town from a tape of American shanties which is quite different from the version here on the database. But there's one word or phrase I can't figure out. Can anyone help?

Whiskey by the jug, boys
Sugar by the sack.
Gonna tote them down to Lynchburg Town
Push my eye-corn back.

Eye-corn?? What might this really be? Thanks for any help on this.

Michi

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Subject: RE: Lynchburg Town lyrics
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 11 Sep 01 - 04:00 PM

This is what I know, I'm sure there are many other lyrics.

Oh I'm going down to town.
Going down to town.
Going down to Lynchburg town to sell my tobacco down.

Tobacco's going high.
Tobacco's going high.
Fifteen cents if it's wet, twenty if it's dry.

I hope this gets things started off.

W.E.

Subject: RE: Lynchburg Town lyrics
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Sep 01 - 12:36 PM

Do you remember whose tape you copied?

Subject: RE: Lynchburg Town lyrics
From: Charley Noble
Date: 12 Sep 01 - 03:43 PM

A total mystery, not related to what the Warners collected.

Subject: RE: Lynchburg Town lyrics
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 12:13 AM

The song Michi quoted reminds me of "Way Down in Shawneetown," by Dillon Bustin (although I am more familiar with the version recorded by Malcolm Dalglish and Grey Larsen). You can find more info in these threads:
Way down in Shawneetown
Shawnee Town
Way Down in Shawneetown - Dillon Bustin.

Although the shanties are obviously related, I'm afraid that "Shawneetown" doesn't shed any light on what "eye-corn" is. The corresponding line in "Shawneetown" is "We'll trade 'em down in Shawneetown and we'll bring the rock salt back."

The song that mentions tobacco is apparently a different song.

Subject: RE: Lynchburg Town lyrics
From: nutty
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 01:53 AM

This sounds like the version recorded by Mystic Seaport.... I have the tape somewhere ...... I'll see if I can find it

Subject: Lyr Add: LYNCHBURG TOWN (sung by Salt of the Earth
From: GUEST,Dan in Nova Scotia
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 08:47 AM

G'Day folks,

You can find a recording of Lynchburg Town on the CD recorded by the now defunct group Salt of the Earth from the Newcastle area of the UK. They got it while performing at Mystic and brought it back with them.

CHORUS: Goin' on down to town, way down town.
I'm goin' down to Lynchburg town to tote my 'baccy down. (REPEAT CHORUS)

Whiskey by the jug boys, sugar by the sack.
Gonna tote them down to Lynchburg town, push my eye-corn back.

I went down to Lynchburg town, bought me a jug of wine.
Tied me to the whippin' post, Gave me forty-nine. CHORUS

Hardest work I ever done, Cutting on the sugar cane.
Easiest work I ever done, Kissin' miss Liza Jane.

The higher up the cherry tree, the sweeter are the cherries.
The more you hug and kiss the girls, the more they want to marry. CHORUS

I went down to New Orleans cutting on the sugar cane,
But every time I cut a stoke, thought o’ miss Liza Jane.

Eighteen pounds of meat a week, whiskey for to sell.
How can a young man stay at home, pretty girl look so well? CHORUS

REPEAT CHORUS

Two of the members, Danny and Joyce McLeod run the Ryton folk club just a few short miles out of Newcastle.

Again, as to what eye-corn is I haven't the faintest. Good luck.

Cheers,

Dan

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 21-Feb-02.

Subject: RE: Lynchburg Town alternate lyrics
From: GUEST,Ollie
Date: 22 Sep 02 - 09:08 PM

Perhaps "eye-corn" has something to with Tri-corn (the hat.) Push my tri-corn back, relax, yeah I can see that. Any thoughts ?

Subject: RE: Lynchburg Town alternate lyrics
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Sep 02 - 11:02 PM

Cut a stoke? Eyecorn? Probably mis-hearings.

Subject: RE: Lynchburg Town alternate lyrics
From: vectis
Date: 23 Sep 02 - 07:24 AM

Maybe making a pipe out of a cob to smoke some tobacco?

Subject: RE: Lynchburg Town alternate lyrics
From: GUEST,Richie
Date: 23 Sep 02 - 01:39 PM

I think the phrase is "bushwack them back."

Here's an excerpt of one of the version of a version in my collection:

There's corn in crib, boys, grain in the sack
Float on down to New Orleans & bushwack her back.

Richie

Subject: RE: Lynchburg Town alternate lyrics
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Sep 02 - 01:56 PM

Bushwhack- to clear a path by cutting. This is the old meaning of the word; to ambush came later. Richie, I think, is correct. (His spelling reflects the common pronunciation, leaving out the 'h').
Richie, can't get your lyrics on your website with Netscape, nor your engagement calendar. It works fine with Internet Explorer. Your clickies give a blank page with Netscape, but are OK with IE.

Subject: RE: Lynchburg Town alternate lyrics
From: GUEST,Richie
Date: 23 Sep 02 - 08:47 PM

Thanks for letting me know.

For you Mudcatters out there with Internet Explorer, Guest referred to my web-site Click here.

I'm putting fiddle tune lyrics on right now. I'm up to the letter (I). When I get to L, I'll post my versions of Lynchburg Town.

Hope you can use the info, it's not complete until I do the research which may start next year as I have about 1,400 fiddle tune lyrics to put on first.

-Richie

Subject: RE: Lynchburg Town alternate lyrics
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Sep 02 - 01:21 PM

"Floating down to New Orleans and bushwhack her back."
"The pulling of a boat by means of the bushes along the margins of a stream."
1826- "Flint, 'Recoll. Mississippi Valley 86: A process, which in the technics of the boatmen [of the Mississippi] is called bush-whacking."
Definition and example from the Oxford English Dictionary. Also discussed in Bartlett, 1828, History and Geography of the Mississippi Valley. This definition of the word seems to be confined to the USA.

Also applied to clearing brush, as noted in the previous posting. Emerson (1870) said of a farmer "He is a graduate of the plough, and the stub-hoe, and the bushwhacker."

The OED, with its quotations from old books and magazines, is a treasure trove of information. Unfortunately, its size and cost limit it to libraries, scholars and a few lucky people who go to the expense of obtaining a copy.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lynchburg Town alternate lyrics
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Nov 07 - 09:17 PM

the lyric is "bushwack on back"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lynchburg Town alternate lyrics
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Nov 07 - 09:24 PM

yeah, the group that recorded that rendition is a now defunct group called Forebitter. The recording came from a tape made at the mystic seaport, where I work. The guys are friends of mine. The lyrics in question that they use are as follows:

Whisky by the jug boys,
sugar by the sack.
Tote 'em on down to Lynchburg town,
bushwack on back.

Subject: Lyr Add: LYNCHBURG TOWN
From: Padre
Date: 04 Nov 07 - 10:15 PM

Here are the verses I sing for "Lynchburg Town." The song was describing the batteaux (the spelling used for flat-bottomed boats on the upper James River) which carried cargo to towns like Lynchburg.

CHORUS:
I'm goin' down to town,
I'm goin' down to town,
I'm goin'down to Lynchburg Town,
Floatin' my tobacco down.

Tobacco's sellin' high,
Tobacco's sellin' high,
Tobacco's bringin' in fifteen cents,
But there's nobody there to buy.

Chorus

Tobacco's sellin' low,
Tobacco's sellin' low,
Tobacco's bringin' in seven cents,
So I don't believe I'll go.

Chorus

Eighteen pounds of meat a week,
Whiskey for to sell,
How can a young man stay at home,
Pretty girls look so well?

Chorus

I went down to town,
Bought me a jug of wine,
They took me out to the whippin' post,
And they gave me ninety nine.

Chorus

I went back to town,
Bought me a jug of gin,
The took me out to the whippin'post
And they gave me hell again.

Chorus

Padre

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lynchburg Town alternate lyrics
From: GUEST,Michael
Date: 21 Jan 16 - 09:01 AM

Just to add a couple of verses as done by Bill Staines:

Times are getting hard
Money is getting scarce
I'm gonna sell my cotton and corn and I'm gonna leave this place


I'm gonna get some posts
To fence my grave around
to keep Bill Jones's ole grey sow from rootin me out of the ground

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lynchburg Town alternate lyrics
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 21 Jan 16 - 09:59 AM

One of the songs on my youtube channel

http://www.youtube.com/user/mgmyer

Learned from Tom Paley iirc.

≈M≈