The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #4566   Message #24945
Posted By: Dale Rose
01-Apr-98 - 06:28 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Bile Them Cabbage Down
Subject: RE: New verses for Bile Them Cabbage Down
There is a good and highly divergent version on Altamont, Black String Band Music From The Library Of Congress, Rounder 238, 1989. The musicians are Nathan Frazier, banjo and vocal, Frank Patterson, fiddle, recorded in 1942.

Here is one verse:

White folks go to meetin' house, you never crack a smile
[black folks] go to meetin' house, you can hear 'em shoutin' a mile
Bile 'em cabbage down, bile 'em cabbage down
Young black gal stop foolin', turn your hoecakes round.


I really can't decipher enough of the other verses to attempt a transcription. I found it interesting that like so much music of the era, there is frequent reference to 'niggers' by black musicians, as well as by white musicians. I can't quite tell what they are saying in the part in parentheses, but it is quite clear what they are saying in some of the other verses. One has to do with white folks going to college, learning to read and write, niggers learning to do something else. (I won't tell you what I think it says for fear of having someone put me up in the really big Mistakes I have made when listening to music thread!)