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Lyr Req: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn

20 Nov 96 - 11:51 AM (#469)
Subject: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From:

Help!!!!! I need these lyrics....


20 Nov 96 - 11:53 AM (#470)
Subject: RE: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: dfortune@freeway.net

Sorry about that......I forgot to put my add on the first thread.....I really need these lyrics.....:>)


20 Nov 96 - 12:02 PM (#471)
Subject: RE: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: Kevin

It's in the DT. Search under blue-tail fly. (You need the hyphen.)


14 Aug 03 - 06:16 PM (#1002275)
Subject: RE: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: GUEST,karen.ledger1@ntlworld.com

Hi,
Can anyone please help me?? Who released this song as a record in the UK?? My dad is wanting a copy but as i dont the know the artist i cant try get a copy.......
Thanks in advance,
Kaz.x


14 Aug 03 - 06:50 PM (#1002297)
Subject: RE: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: greg stephens

Burl Ives was the man with the hit(rather a minor hit, and a long time ago)


14 Sep 03 - 06:48 PM (#1018873)
Subject: RE: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: GUEST,Steve

Billie Jo Spears sings this


28 Sep 03 - 07:30 PM (#1026016)
Subject: Lyr Add: JIMMY CRACK CORN AND I DON'T CARE
From: GUEST,Elfmonkey

Here are the lyrics for Jimmy Cracked Corn and I Don't Care


Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
The Master's gone away.

When I was young I used to wait
On my Master and bring him his plate,
And give him the bottle when he got dry
And brush away the blue tail fly.

Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
The Master's gone away.

When he would ride around the farm,
So numerous the flies they all would swarm,
One chanced to bite him on the thigh,
Oh, the devil take the blue tail fly.

Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
The Master's gone away.

When he would ride in the afternoon,
I would follow with the hickory broom,
The pony began to run and shy,
When bitten by the blue tail fly.

Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
The Master's gone away.

The pony run, he jumped, he pitched,
He threw my Master in the ditch,
And when he died the juries asked why,
I blamed it on the blue-tail fly

Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
The Master's gone away.

They burried him under the 'simmon tree,
His epitaph was there to see:
"Upon this stone I'm forced to lie
A victim of the blue tail fly."

Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
The Master's gone away.



Background-- Corn cracking is grinding
corn for use as grits and meal.
"Jimmy" is a corruption
of "gimme," so the song essentially
means "I would be willing to eat
something as vile as cracked corn and
still be happy if I weren't a slave.


28 Sep 03 - 07:31 PM (#1026017)
Subject: RE: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: GUEST,Elfmonkey

By the way, it's an old negro spiritual.


28 Sep 03 - 07:51 PM (#1026023)
Subject: RE: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: Joybell

Oh no the monkeys again. Negro spiritual?? See related threads for more possibilities and more monkeys. I did find a song called "The Blue-tailed Fly" that was sung in London in 1824 but posting that info. got me into all kinds of trouble. see related thread.


28 Sep 03 - 08:00 PM (#1026031)
Subject: RE: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: McGrath of Harlow

Which of the related threads would that be?


28 Sep 03 - 08:35 PM (#1026051)
Subject: RE: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: Q (Frank Staplin)

The "first" version of "De Blue Tail Fly," 1846, is given in thread 40458, 24 Oct. 01. Note that the refrain "Jim Crack Corn" is not in this original:
Blue Tail Fly

In the same thread, "Jim Crack Corn," treated as a separate song, is given by Masato Sakurai, along with "Blue Tailed Fly," from Christy's Nigga Songster, c. 1850. The minstrel shows revised and reworked material constantly, but these versions are the earliest in print. The two songs were soon combined in some performances.

No way are they Negro spirituals. They are minstrel songs. Some speculate that the origin could be African-American, in part based on Negro secular songs, but so far, no evidence has been found.

The thread linked here, and others linked at the head of this thread, contain much more information (as well as some nonsense) about these songs.


28 Sep 03 - 08:35 PM (#1026052)
Subject: RE: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: Joybell

"Help: Jimmy Crack Corn (36)"    Sorry I'm not very good at the technical bits like putting in links, but it's at the top here. Is that ok?


28 Sep 03 - 08:46 PM (#1026059)
Subject: RE: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: Q (Frank Staplin)

Added note: The song in combined form appeared in 1846 as "Jim Crack Corn or the Blue Tail Fly," pub. by F. D. Benteen, Baltimore. I believe that this also was pointed out in the thread linked above or one of the others at the head of this thread.


29 Sep 03 - 10:32 AM (#1026335)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: The O'Meara

If nobody cares, why did they write a song about it?

Sorry.

O'Meara


29 Sep 03 - 07:04 PM (#1026418)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: Q (Frank Staplin)

Tim, this has been gone over so much that I'm sure nobody cares any more.


29 Sep 03 - 07:12 PM (#1026425)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: Joybell

Shoo fly don't bother me
Shoo fly don't bother me
Shoo fly don't bother me