The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #9065   Message #1313308
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
01-Nov-04 - 01:26 PM
Thread Name: Lyr ADD: Ging Gang Goolie (Robert Baden-Powell ??)
Subject: RE: ging gang gooly
There is a logical reason to ban 'gooley.' It seems, in Britain, that it is a favorite song of 'footballers,' who seem to .....

The chorus "I ain't a gonna grieve, my Lord, no more, seems to be a take from "I Ain't Goin' Study War No More."

"I Ain't..." seems to be derived from the camp meeting song (or spiritual), "Down By the Riverside," which appears in variations "Down By de Ribber Side" (in Grey, haven't seen), "I Ai'nt Goingt' Study War No More" (an early form in Dett, Religious Folk Songs of the Negro); "Down By the River," in Dett The song was not recorded by Fenner in 1874, but was added to a later edition, 1926?; and several others.
Most take the song as a spiritual (which it is, known since Civil War times) but also known as a white camp meeting song.
I am putting together a number of versions which I have and may add to the material already in the DT and Forum. (Strange, it is not in the Af-Am Spiritual Permathread).

The form of the verses could be from an 'upstart crow,' similar to this one:

If you want to go to Heaven
I'll tell you what to do;
Just grease all over in Brunswick stew;
The devil will grab at you and miss his man,
Then you'll slip right over into the promised land.
Eat chitlings.

Cho:
Oh, mourner, you shall be free
When the good Lord sets you free.

N. I. White, 1928 (1965), "American Negro Folk Songs," p. 135; coll. 1909-1916 by Taylor (MS) and Perrow.