The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #52717   Message #809449
Posted By: GUEST
23-Oct-02 - 01:43 PM
Thread Name: Origin: Johnny Come Down to Hilo
Subject: RE: Origin: Johnny Come Down to Hilo
"Round De Corn, Sally," first collected when used as a rowing song, had at least one more verse in Hungerford, two lines of which are given, along with yours, in Dena J. Epstein, "Sinful Tunes and Spirituals." Are the other two lines in your reference?
Epstein gives the sheet music on p. 169 of her book.
Filling in Charley Noble's post:

Dere's Mr Lucas lub Miss T'resser,
Un ebery thing he does ter please her;

Quoting from Epstein (from Hungerford); "When a passenger (on the boat, coastal Maryland) requested "Round de Corn, Sally," she was told 'Dat's a corn song, un we'll hab ter sing it slow ter row to." They sang it, improvising words to fit the members of the party.
Other songs, such as "Poor Rosy, Poor Gal," could be sung fast to grind hominy and slow to row by, just as a corn song could be adapted for rowing.
The corn shucking song quoted by Masato, and others here all could be used as rowing songs from the east coast, Maryland and the Carolinas to Florida.
This one was a rowing song, also from Hungerford (? In another thread also? Seem to remember that at least one of the variants was posted, but it fits in the context of this thread).

SOLD OFF TO GEORGY

Farewell, fellow servants! O-ho! O-ho!
I'm gwine away to leabe you; O-ho! O-ho!
I'm gwine to leabe de ole county; O-ho! O-ho!
I'm sold off to Georgy! O-ho! O-ho!

Farewell, old plantation, O-ho! O-ho!
Farewell, de old quarter, O-ho! O-ho!
Un daddy, un mammy; O-ho! O-ho!
Un marster, un missus! O-ho! O-ho!

My dear wife un one chile, O-ho! O-ho!
My poor heart is breaking; O-ho! O-ho!
No more shall I see you, O-ho! O-ho!
Oh! No more foreber! O-ho! O-ho!

The response on the part of the rowers, O-ho!, easily changes to "Weel-ho!," "Yoe! Yoee!," "Shilo," "Hollow!," "Hilo!" noted in other songs.
This song appears in many guises in various references. "Sold off to Georgy" (or other far south plantation region) seems to have been a constant fear of slaves working in the more liberal coastal Carolinas.

Aye! Ayee!, is another of the chorused responses in a rowing song (This one has to be called a chantey!).

We are going down to Georgia, boys, Aye! Aye!
To see the pretty girls, boys; Yoe! Yoe!
We'll give 'em a pint of brandy, boys, Aye! Aye!
An a hearty kiss, besides, boys. Yoe! Yoe!
etc., etc.
"The words were nonsense; anything, in fact, which came into their heads." Heard in 1808, traveling by boat from Purrysburgh to Savannah, GA, by boat. John Lambert, Travels, II, p. 253-54.

Others have written of the singing of the Galley slaves on the larger rivers and estuary boats and canoes of the coastal and riverine South.
Unfortunately, secular songs were seldom collected. Major attention was given to the spirituals on the part of collectors.