Subject: Bile Dem Cabbage Down From: Paul S Date: 01 Dec 99 - 01:50 PM I found the lyrics in the DT, but was hoping to find some in plain language. I hate trying to read things in someone's attempt at transcribing dialect. What in hell is a "hoecake"? I'm trying to learn this to play it for my dad, because he said he loves the tune. If anyone can help me out with the melody (I've never heard it), that'd be swell too. Thanks in advance, kids. Paul |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bile Dem Cabbage Down From: Paul S Date: 01 Dec 99 - 01:54 PM By the way, for anyone else who suffers from my inability to understand written dialect, the song's called Boil Them Cabbage Down On a similar topic, about ten years ago, I bought the Robert Johnson, CD box set. The lyrics to all of the songs have been written out phonetically to try and match the sounds coming out of Johnson's lips. It really didn't do anything to help my understanding of the tunes. Paul |
Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: BOIL THEM CABBAGE DOWN From: Reiver 2 Date: 01 Dec 99 - 03:02 PM According to my Funk and Wagnalls a hoecake is "a thin, flat cake made from cornmeal, originally baked on a hoe." When my kids were small I used to play a few chords on the guitar and sing to them. "Bile (boil) Them Hoecakes Down" was their favorite, so your dad isn't the only one!
BILE THEM CABBAGE DOWN
CHO: Bile them cabbage down, down; bake that hoecake brown, brown.
2) Raccoon and the possum, rackin' 'cross the prairie.
3) Possum is a cunning thing, he travels in the dark;
4) Possum up a 'simmon tree, Raccoon on the ground.
5. Jaybird died with the whoopin' cough, Sparrow died with the colic.
Chords and tune are the same for the verses and chorus.
I wish I knew how to transcribe the tune. Here is the sequence of notes, if that will help: (Key 2 sharps)
It's in 2/4 time seven 8th notes then two 16ths, four more 8ths, a quarter and a quarter rest. I think I have these right (I haven't thought about written music for 40 years! So I hope from the above you can put the tune down on paper and play it. Good luck.
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bile Dem Cabbage Down From: Reiver 2 Date: 01 Dec 99 - 03:07 PM Oooops! Sorry! The name of the song IS "Bile Them Cabbage Down", and NOT "Bile Them Hoecakes Down"! (That would make a pretty unappetizing mess! Not that boiled cabbage is a favorite of mine either.) |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bile Dem Cabbage Down From: Amos Date: 01 Dec 99 - 07:17 PM The words I learned originally, many years back, included these two verses: -------------------------------- Of all the birdies in the sky, I love the mallard duck He flies above the desert sands And watches people holding hands
Of all the fishes in the sea I love the stripey bass A. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bile Dem Cabbage Down From: Amos Date: 01 Dec 99 - 07:26 PM As for the tune, send me your email address and I'll send you a rough version -- amos@san.rr.com |
Subject: Lyr Add: BOIL DEM CABBAGE DOWN From: Stewie Date: 02 Dec 99 - 03:34 AM For the purposes of comparison, here are 2 of the earliest recorded versions of the song. Fiddlin' John Carson's was the first version recorded - in 1924. Although 'Dem' is retained in the title of the song, Fiddlin' John definitely sings 'them'. However, the 'dem', the 'master', the 'yella girl' and the taking of the wife to 'New Orleans' (John was a Georgian chicken farmer) would seem to betray the song's minstrel/medicine show and black tradition connections. Carson's version was a reasonably sedate affair, accompanied only by his fiddle. Earl Johnson's version, recorded in 1927, is a much more spirited hoedown treatment - and it has totally different verses. As an instrumental, 'Bile dem cabbage down' was part of the countryman's common stock - black and white - of traditional music that also included tunes like 'Old Hen Cackle', 'Turkey in the Straw', 'Sourwood Mountain', 'Leather Britches', 'Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy' and dozens of others. Clayton McMichen, the 'reluctant hillbilly' and member of the Skillet Lickers', said he won the national fiddle championship 16 times playing the tune. Evidently, he would improvise on the melody like a jazz soloist or modern bluegrasser. Some later fiddlers absorbed part of his improvisations as a normal part of the tune. Anyhow, here are the lyrics of the 2 earliest recordings of the piece as a song. Like all transcriptions of early 78s, they are tentative and subject to correction by other ears - but I have done my best with the equipment at my disposal. Both are very different from that in the DT. Cheers, Stewie. BOIL DEM CABBAGE DOWN
Boil them cabbage down
Master had a little mule
Quit that ticklin' me
Feet was light as a feather
Boil them cabbage down
Whisky by the gallon
Quit that ticklin' me
Wouldn't marry a yella girl
Boil them cabbage down
If I had a scolding wife
Quit that ticklin' me
Now I got no money
Quit that ticklin' me Fiddlin' John Carson 73040-A-OK 40306 New York 18 December 1924. Reissued on Fiddlin' John Carson 'Complete Recorded Works Vol II' Document DOCD 8015. BOIL DEM CABBAGE DOWN
Boil them cabbage down
I went up on the mountain Boil them …
I asked that girl to marry me Boil them …
Wish I had a nickel Boil them …
Wish I had a wide (?) brim hat Boil them …
Greenback in my pocket Boil them … Earl Johnson and His Dixie Entertainers 80265-A-OK 45112 23 March 1927 Atlanta Georgia.Reissued on Earl Johnson 'Complete Recorded Works Vol I' Document DOCD 8005.
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Subject: Lyr Add: BOIL THEM CABBAGE DOWN From: Les B Date: 02 Dec 99 - 09:10 PM Sorry, had a senior moment ! Some of the verses to "Bile them..." seem to float between it and "Old Joe Clark" A few of the scurrilous ones I've heard include:
Wouldn't marry an old maid
Took my gal to a blacksmith shop
Bought my gal a brand new watch Line Breaks |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bile Dem Cabbage Down From: Sourdough Date: 02 Dec 99 - 11:35 PM Lster Flatt and Earl Scruggs used to sing a verse
My gal ran around the barn. Sourdough |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bile Dem Cabbage Down From: GUEST,jspearl Date: 27 May 04 - 02:54 PM my grandfather sang me on verse of this song every time we passed by our persimmon tree at our farm. i can sing the one verse, and the rest of them fit the music i know if you area still interested in it let me know. by the way, i'm glad to have the whole song |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bile Dem Cabbage Down From: Flash Company Date: 28 May 04 - 10:40 AM Kissed my sweetheart in the dark So no-one could be peeking Missed her lips and kissed her nose And the goddam thing was leaking! FC |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bile Dem Cabbage Down From: kendall Date: 28 May 04 - 05:11 PM Very similar to WHoa Mule too. I had an old gray mule, his name was Simon Slick Cocked his head and humped his back And how that mule could kick. How that mule could kick He kicked 'til his dying breath He drove his hind feet down his throat\And stomped his self to death. Whoa mule whoa, whoa mule I say Tie a knot in that mule's tail that mule gonna run away. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bile Dem Cabbage Down From: GUEST Date: 28 May 04 - 06:36 PM Master had a little mule And he called him *silent slick" (probably "Simon Slick" as in the mule song above) That mule it had such dreamy eyes But how that mule could kick |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bile Dem Cabbage Down From: paddymac Date: 29 May 04 - 12:04 AM In the hill country of Kentucky, this tune was popular among moonshiners. During the bad old days of prohibition, it became the habit of some moonshiners to boil vats of cabbage at their still sites as the smell of it was thought to mask the tell-tale "aroma" of the still. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bile Dem Cabbage Down From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 29 May 04 - 12:52 AM I always heerd tell that downwind of a paper plant was best. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bile Dem Cabbage Down From: GUEST,PintoVega@aol.com Date: 19 Jun 04 - 03:13 PM I wrote a few new verses. Any and all brave people are welcome to use them. Danny Walker: PintoVega@aol.com I dreamed I went to heaven And here is what I seen Saint Pete standin' at the pearly gates With a bowl of turnip greens! The clouds were shaped like cabbage And the biscuits grew on trees The fountains flowed with gravy And taters and pinto beans! I'm hungry in the morning Hungry night and noon In case I dream of cabbage I sleep with a spoon. If I were a farmer I'll tell you what I'd do I have me a cabbage patch From here to Timbuktu. When I'm set to marry Here's how I'll choose my wife Any gal that can bake biscuits Will get to be my bride! Holler if you like biscuits And gravy and pinto beans And if you love boiled cabbage You can come home with me. If I were a rich man Here is what I'd do I'd mash a bag of taters And give'em all to you! Oh! Granny made some biscuits And they were hard as lead When I asked her to pass me one She bounced it off my head. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bile Dem Cabbage Down From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 19 Jun 04 - 03:46 PM Very good! You should substitute black-eyed peas for the pinto beans, though. Now write the verses on an old sheet of paper, bile it with the cabbage, and sell it as traditional as tooken down by great great aunt Hepzibah. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bile Dem Cabbage Down From: Joe_F Date: 19 Jun 04 - 07:13 PM Another drifter that has sometimes found lodging in this song: Raccoon has a bushy tail, Possum's tail is bare, Rabbit ain't got no tail at all, Just a little bitty bunch of hair. The second tease stanza quoted by Amos also appears expanded as a recitation: Of all the fishes in the seas, The strangest is the bass. It climbs into the tops of trees And slides down on its hands and knees To frolic in the grass. The one quoted by Les B likewise appears as Mary had a little watch. She swallowed it one day. The doctor gave her laxative To pass the time away. Mary took the laxative, But the time, it would not pass, So if you want to know the time, You can look up Mary's aunt, who has a watch too. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bile Dem Cabbage Down From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 19 Jun 04 - 08:01 PM The raccoon verse is a really old floater. It appears in Thomas W. Talley, "Negro Folk Rhymes," new ed. p. 191, no. 355 (received by him ca. 1920) and in Newman I. White. All the verses quoted here, except the new ones by PintoVega, are in previous threads and posts. The raccoon has a bushy tail, Possum tail, she bear, The rabbit has no tail at all, But a little bunch of hair. The earliest version is in the minstrel song "Uncle Gabriel," pre-Civil War, but where it originally came from ??? See N. I. White, American Negro Folk Songs. Verses submitted by Amos are well-known to Scouts. As noted in the DT, most verses are floaters added to extend the dance. Would be interesting to find out when the "Bile dem....." verse came in. Much later, I think, than the floaters. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bile Dem Cabbage Down From: Charley Noble Date: 20 Jun 04 - 05:48 PM I've heard one of the verses above a little differently via Frank Warner: If I had a scolding wife, Sure as you are born, I'd tote her down to New Orleans Trade her off for corn. Another favorite verse from the same source: Love it is a killing thing, Beauty is a blossom, If you want your finger bit, Poke it at a possum. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bile Dem Cabbage Down From: GUEST,MarkS Date: 21 Jun 04 - 04:06 PM I gave my girl a bicycle She learned to ride it well Till she rode into a telephone pole And broke it all to pieces Grandma had an old grey hen A sittin hen you know She sat it on two Buzzard eggs and hatched out one old crow. there are as many variations as there burbon bottles at blue grass festivals!! Mark |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bile Dem Cabbage Down From: GUEST,Charly Ellis Date: 12 Oct 04 - 11:51 AM Has any one heard these verses? Wish I was an apple, Hanging on a tree, And every time my pretty gal passed, She'd take a bite of me. Wish I had a banjo string, Made of golden twine, And every time I'd pick on it, I'd wish that gal were mine. Wish I had a needle, As fine as I could sew, I'd sew that gal to my coat tail, And down the road we'd go. My gal, she got religion, She had it once before, But when she hears my old banjo, She's the first one on the floor. Boil them cabbage down, down, Turn them hoe cakes 'round, 'round, Only song that I can sing is Boil them cabbage down. It was in my guitar book, but I've not seen these ones listed in your website. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bile Dem Cabbage Down From: GUEST,Pete Peterson Date: 12 Oct 04 - 09:07 PM Charley-- I agree those verses are floaters, but I associate them more with "Cindy" than Cabbage. Of all the variants I know, my favorite is Lowe Stokes' "Rocking My Sugar Lump" which never mentions cabbage but is the same tune with many of the same verses. |
Subject: Lyr Add: HANNAH BOIL DAT CABBAGE DOWN From: Jim Dixon Date: 07 Jun 06 - 12:58 AM From The Library of Congress American Memory Collection: HANNAH BOIL DAT CABBAGE DOWN Sam Lucas, 1878 1. Oh, Hannah, boil dat cabbage down—Hannah, boil 'em down— And turn dem buckwheats round and round—Hannah, boil 'em down. It's almost time to blow de horn—Hannah, boil 'em down— To call de boys dat hoe de corn—Hannah, boil 'em down. CHORUS: Hannah, boil 'em down, De cabbage just pulled out de ground. Boil 'em in de pot And make him smoking hot. Hannah, boil 'em down, De cabbage just pulled out de ground. Boil 'em in de pot And make him smoking hot. 2. Some like de cabbage made in kraut—Hannah, boil 'em down. Dey eat so much dey get de gout—Hannah, boil 'em down. Dey chops 'em up and let dem spoil—Hannah, boil 'em down. I'd rather hab my cabbage boiled—Hannah, boil 'em down. 3. Some say dat possums in de pan—Hannah, boil 'em down— Am de sweetest meat in all de land—Hannah boil 'em down— But dar is dat ole cabbage head—Hannah, boil 'em down. I'll prize it, children, till I'se dead—Hannah, boil 'em down. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bile Dem Cabbage Down From: Charley Noble Date: 07 Jun 06 - 11:53 AM "Bile Them Cabbage Down" was probably one of the first songs I ever learned in a jam at a friend's house in the early 1960's. I came well-prepared with "Tom Dully" and "Cripple Creek." Nice lyrics, Jim. Charley Noble |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bile Dem Cabbage Down From: GUEST,Q as guest Date: 07 Jun 06 - 01:23 PM Many thanks for the lyrics. Sam Lucas was a famous African-American minstrel. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bile Dem Cabbage Down From: GUEST,tbecton Date: 30 Jul 06 - 02:07 AM This the song my Father sang to me as he bounced me on his knee. Whoa mule whoa mule whoa I say, Get out of the road there girl this mules runnin away. Old man Johnson had a mule his name was Simon Slick, ill bet ya a doller that,that mule would kick. He would back his ears and wall his eyes and meet you with a smile telegram that left hind leg and kick you a half a mile.
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