The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #121994 Message #2670076
Posted By: Azizi
02-Jul-09 - 04:36 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Rabbit in the Pea Patch
Subject: RE: Rabbit in a pea patch: Lyr & Origin
Richie, I've not been able to find an earlier African American source for an exact version of the play party song "Rabbit In the Pea-Patch"-Shoo-lye Love". However, I found some examples that fit the theme of a rabbit in some brier or patch.
Thomas W. Talley's 1922 collection Negro Folk Rhymes has a number of Rabbit songs. One of them "Molly Cottontail or Graveyard Rabbit" has this verse:
Molly in de Bramble-brier
Let me git a little nigher;
Prickly-pear, it sting lak fire!
Do please come pick out de brier!
[Kennikat Press edition, 1968; p. 8]
Talley also includes a song/rhyme entitled "Old Molly Hare" that include this verse:
Ole Molly har'!
What's you doin' thar?
I'se gwine cross de Cotton Patch, hard as I can t'ar"
[Kennikat Press edition, 1968; p. 22]
In addition, Talley includes a song/rhyme called "Devilish Pigs" which
contains this verse:
Dey [the pigs] roots my cabbage, roots my co'n;
Dey roots up all my beans.
Dey speilt my fine sweet-tater patch,
'An' dey ruint my tunnup greens
[Kennikat Press edition, 1968; p. 24]
And there are other examples of Negro Folk Rhymes songs that mention rabbits, and Br'er [Brother] Rabbit in particular.
I'm no musician, but it seems to me that Talley's collection also includes some songs that have the same structure as "Rabbit In the Pea-Patch-Shoo-lye love". However, in my quick review of that book I didn't find any songs that specifically use the refrain "Shoo-lye love".
Actually, the closest song with that rabbit in the pea-patch theme I found (in my admittedly brief search this afternoon*) wasn't in Talley's collection but was in Dorothy Scarborough's 1925 book On The Trail Of Negro Folk Songs. Here's an excerpt of that song:
BROTHER EPHRUM GOT DE COON AND GONE ON
I went down to my pea-patch
To see if my ole hen had hatch.
Ole hen hatch and tellin' of her dream,
And de little chickens pickin on de tambourine
chorus
Brother Ephrum got de coon and gone on and gone on and gone on,
Brother Ephrum got de coon and gone on
And left me here behind.
I see a rabbit a-runnin' down de fiel';
I say, "Mister Rabbit, whar you gwine?"
She say, "I ain't got no time to fool wid you,
Dat's a white man comin' on behind.
chorus
[Folklore Associates Edition, 1963; pp 101-102]
Of course, those dance songs and play party songs were made up of floating verses that the singers/callers remembered or made up to fit the pattern of the song. So the theme of the rabbit in the pea-patch wasn't as important as the tune and beat of the song itself.
There are a number of 19th century or earlier African American songs in Scarborough's collection that I believe have a similar structure as "Rabbit In the Pea-Patch-Shoo-lye love". Here's an excerpt of one of them which Scarborough gives the title "Dance Song":
Lead a man, di-dee-o, lead a man, di-dee-o;
Lead a man, di-dee-o, lead a man, di-dee-o.
You swing heads, di-dee-o, I swing feet, di-dee-o,
Ain't dat nice, di-dee-o, walkin' on de ice, di-dee-o!
[Folklore Associates Edition, 1963; p 115]
* In addition to those two books, I also reviewed Alan Lomax's, J. D. Elder's, and Bess Lomax Hawe's 1997 book of Caribbean children's game songs Brown Girl In The Ring. However, there was no song in that book that was similar to Rabbit In The Pea-Patch Shoo-lye Love" (which come to think of it isn't surprising since "Rabbit/Shoo-lye Love" is a dance song and not a children's game song).
Thanks, Richie, for motivating me to look through these books.
-Azizi