If no folklorist has recognized the close simularities in the text of "Johnny Cuckoo" and "Dukes A' Riding", I'm amazed.

I believe the tunes are very similar, if I correctly recall the Dukes A-Riding tune.

And the manner of playing-apart from the chasing afterwards (if there is chasing afterwards in the Dukes a'riding game song. I'm jumping ahead of myself because I want to mention yet another African American children's game song that is a variant form of Dukes a'riding.

But just because the purpose of two songs are different, you would say that one isn't a variant form of another? I'm sorry, but I find that amazing.

**

Here is a link to the words of an African American "courting" game song that I collected in 1997 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (I gave the wrong collection year in my comments in about that song in that thread). My informant was Barbara Ray, an African American woman who remember this game song from her childhood, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the early-mid 1950s.

thread.cfm?threadid=18352#2116757



Note the close similarities between Dukes a-riding (and Johnny Cuckoo) and other variant Dukes a-riding songs.

Here's the play instructions and some excerpts of that song:

Directions: The girls form a horizontal line and stand facing boys who have also formed a horizontal line. In the 1st part of this singing game, the girls sing and skip four steps for each phrase toward the boys and the boys sing while skipping four steps for each phrase toward the girls. The singing game turns into a chasing game at a specific part of the chant.

**

Girls:
We're riding here to get married
Married, Married
Riding here to get married.
Ah Rhythm Ah Diddee
Ah Diddee High Oh...

**

Boys:

You'll get all dirty and greasy
Greasy, Greasy
You'll get all dirty and greasy
Ah Rhythm Ah Diddee
Ah Diddee High Oh


-snip-

How can anyone reading these texts not recognize that they are variant forms of "Dukes a riding"?



Azizi Powell