More Cowley on "Peas and Rice":

Recorded Bahamian Repertoire and the U.S.A. — 1920s – 30s

"Inevitably, there was movement of songs in the other direction. A useful example of the adoption and adaptation of West Indian repertoire is the Bahamian song Mama Don't Want No Peas and Rice, as a formal arrangement has become known. This bears some resemblance to the black American barrelhouse piece Mama Don't 'Low, adapted for the mayoral campaign of 'Boss Crump' in Memphis, Tennessee in 1909 and recorded by several bluesmen. Perhaps a Caribbean reworking of the earlier composition, Mama Don't Want No Peas and Rice is best remembered in jazz circles for recordings by white bandleader Mart Britt and his Orchestra (Victor 22933 / Bluebird B4955, recorded 1932) and Cleo Brown (Decca 512, recorded 1935) Most familiar is the blues rendition by Jimmy Rushing with the Count Basie Orchestra (Decca 2030, recorded in New York City on 6 June 1938). The Bahamian lyric probably originated during the First World War. At least, this was the view of Van Campen Heilner, who collected a version entitled Coconut Oil (A Song of the Bahama Islands) in about 1924:

        My mammy don't want no peas, no rice, no coconut oil! (3x)
        All she wants a brandy shandy after nine!

During the war the natives of the Bahamas found it extremely difficult to get butter, lard or fat of any kind and the majority of cooking was done in coconut oil. They soon got sick of it and the saying 'My mammy don't want no peas and rice with coconut oil' gave rise to the song. A 'brandy shandy' can be either a drink or a 'hot time'.

His variant was published in 1930 but, with the substitution of Papa for Mammy and other minor differences, had been printed a year earlier by Amelia Defries:

        Papa don't want no peas nor rice nor coconut oil, (2x)
        All he wants is sugar brandy [sic] all the time.

The composed rendition (as sung by Rushing), was not registered for copyright until 1931 in the names of L. Wolfe Gilbert (words), L. Charles and J. Rosamond Johnson (melody).

Working in Florida during the 1930s, the celebrated black American folklorist Zora Neale Hurston recorded a version of this song for the Library of Congress. She attributes its origin to Nassau, New Providence Island in the Bahamas, describing it as a husband's explanation to the neighbors what is the matter with his wife and why they don't get along better."

[Robert Springer, ed., "Nobody Knows Where the Blues Came From": Lyrics and History, West Indies Blues: an historical overview 1920s – 1950s — blues and music from the English-speaking West Indies, Cowley, John, Jackson, University Press of Mississippi, 2006, pp. 187-263]