Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (Jamaica)

Subject: Lyr Add: BIG BIG SAMBO GYAL (Jamaica)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 01 Jun 11 - 01:46 AM

BIG BIG SAMBO GYAL

Verse 1
Big big Sambo gyal and she cyaan do a ting.
Big big Sambo gyal and she cyaan do a ting.

Chorus
Sen' she back to she mumma, O!
Sen' she back to she puppa, O!
Di gyal cyaan wash an di gyaal cyaan cook,
Sen she back to she mumma.

Gyal yu waa fi come kill me fi dundas,
Gyal yu waa fi come kill me O,
She tek ackee bwile soup, she tek 'natta color i'.
Gyal yu waa fi come kill mi.

2. Han' full a ring an' she cyaan do a ting.
Han' full a ring an' she cyaan do a ting.
Chorus.

(from "Mango Time: Folk Songs of Jamaica" collected by Noel Dexter and Geoffrey Taylor)

This song is similar to the Belafonte translated version of "Angelique-O."
This theme of the woman who can't do domestic chores seems to be common
in Caribbean folk songs. Are there any songs from other traditions that are similar?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 01 Jun 11 - 04:46 AM

I found a snippet of a book on Google Books- a book about the history of Jamaica published in 1947, which prints the lyrics to this song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 01 Jun 11 - 05:52 PM

Refresh. Anyone want to comment?

Subject: Lyr Add: JESSIE MAHON / PACK SHE BACK TO SHE MA
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Jun 11 - 07:25 PM

PACK SHE BACK TO SHE MA

A pretty little girl name Jessie Mahon,
She lazy since she born,
De girl couldn' cook, she won' read a book,
She pack she back to she ma.

Chorus-
Pack she back to she ma,
Oh, pack she back to she ma,
Such a decent girl like Jessie Mahon,
Pack she back to she ma.

A pretty little girl like Jessie Mahon,
Uh miss she now she gone.
De girl couldn' clean, she was so mean,
So, pack she back to she ma.

Barbadian version of "Pack She Back."

http://silvertorch.com/barbsongs.html

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 01 Jun 11 - 11:14 PM

Wow! Not coincidentally, in the "Folk Songs of Barbados" book, "Jessie Mahon", with melody, is included. What is the purpose of these types of songs about girls who can't do the housework? Warning men against the dangers of marriage and/or cohabitation?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 02 Jun 11 - 01:38 AM

. . . and giving daughters a reason to learn domestic chores so that their husbands won't send them back to their parents?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 02 Jun 11 - 03:26 AM

Probably. Also interesting is the fact that in an early 1940s collection version of this song- mentioned as a "folk song'- this chorus says "Send 'im back to 'im mumma."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 02 Jun 11 - 03:33 AM

http://www.timespub.tc/2002/06/rediscovering-the-hidden-culture-folk-songs/
The author of the article on this site mentions being taught this song as apart of a medley.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 02 Jun 11 - 03:34 AM

EDIT: "site".

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 02 Jun 11 - 04:30 AM

I'll try that link again."Big Big Sambo Gal" in the Turks and Caicos

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 02 Jun 11 - 06:27 PM

Refresh. Anyone else have opinions?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 02 Jun 11 - 09:45 PM

Could "Send 'im back to 'im mumma." be the result of a dialect that does not use different words for male and female pronouns, so that 'im means 'er--uh, her?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 02 Jun 11 - 11:59 PM

It could be. But another book suggests it might be the folk origin. "Further on the folk/popular continuum the gender is more correct". Are there songs from other traditions besides West Indian/Caribbean talking about sending girls who can't do housework back to their parents?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 03 Jun 11 - 04:18 AM

In fact, it might be an older version of Jamaican dialect.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 03 Jun 11 - 09:43 PM

Refresh.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Jun 11 - 08:06 PM

"Jessie Mahon"

"Another banter aimed at the sloppy, housekeeping woman. Barbadian men place great stress on the ability of their women to cook and clean well and many romances founder on this crucial factor. Some men have no compunction about sending the young woman packing back to her Ma if they finf her wanting in these areas."

Marshall, McGeary and Thompson, 1981, Folk Songs of Barbados, Ian Randle, Publishers, Kingston, Jamaica.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Jun 11 - 08:14 PM

The version I found on the net and posted, silvertorch site, is identical to "Jessie Mahon (Pack She Back to Her Ma)", with musical score, pp. 84-85, in Marshall, McGeary and Thompson, 1981, Folk Songs of Barbados.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Jun 11 - 10:37 PM

"Pack She Back to She Ma" was copyright in 1943, Massie Patterson and Lionel Belasco, copyright M. Baron Co., New York.
Massie Patterson, the singer, may have recorded the song.

Re-printed by permission in Jim Morse, Folk songs of the Caribbean, 1958, Bantam Books.

In notes with another "Sambo" song, Walter Jekyll, 1904, remarks: "A Sambo is the child of a brown mother and a black father, being a cross between black and white. The Sambo lady, very proud of the strain of white in her blood, turns up her nose at the black man. She wants a white man for a husband. Failing to find one, she will not marry at all."

Lyr. Add.: SAMBO LADY
Digging-Sing

Sambo lady ho! Sambo, Sambo lady ho!
Sambo, Sambo no like black man,
Sambo, Sambo, want white man,
Sambo, Sambo, no get white man,
Sambo, Sambo, no want man again,
Sambo, Sambo lady, oh!
Sambo.
With musical score, LXXVI.

Walter Jekyll, 1904, Jamaican Song and Story, Dover reprints.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 04:04 AM

Q, thanks for those comments. The implication would be then taht the girl doesn't bother to learn chores because she thinks of herself as superior.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 04:05 AM

*that*

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 01:01 PM

The Massie Patterson and Lionel Belasco sheet music for "Pack She Back..." I referred June 11 is in Massie Patterson and Lionel Belasco, 1943, Calypso Songs of the West Indies, pp. 6-7.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 27 Jun 11 - 09:49 AM

Talking of "Jamaican Song and Story", I found the Porject Gutenberg ebook, and found another song which is related/could be a variant of "Big Big Sambo Gyal". It is called "Bungo Moolatta" and has the "han' full a ring" line:
CXXVII.

Schottische.

Bungo Moolatta, Bungo Moolatta,
Who dé go married you?
You hand full a ring an' you can't do a t'ing,
Who dé go married you?
Me give you me shirt fe wash,
You burn up me shirt with iron,
You hand full a ring an' you can't do a t'ing,
Who dé go married you?
-Walter Jekyll, Jamaican Song and Story

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 27 Jun 11 - 12:57 PM

"Bungo Moolatta," quoted above by Morwen, is CXXVII, a Dancing Tune, p. 225 in Walter Jekyll, 1907, Jamaican Song and Story. Printed with musical score.

Walter Jekyll, in a note, defines the usages in Jamaica:
Bungo- "...a rough uncivilized African."
Mulatto- "...the child of two Brown parents, Brown being the offspring of Black and White. He has rather a yellow skin."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 28 Jun 11 - 08:32 AM

Refresh.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 29 Jun 11 - 08:25 AM

Apparently this song was also collected by Louise Bennett as "Big Sambo Gal."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 29 Jun 11 - 08:35 AM

Have added the lyrics from here to the "Lyr Req: Angelique-O" thread.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: GUEST,Jim McLean
Date: 29 Jun 11 - 02:27 PM

MorwenEdhelwen1 you ask "This theme of the woman who can't do domestic chores seems to be common in Caribbean folk songs. Are there any songs from other traditions that are similar?"
I think the Scottish song the Wee Cooper o' Fife is one.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 29 Jun 11 - 06:01 PM

Thanks!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (Jamaica)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 28 Aug 11 - 07:43 AM

Refresh.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (Jamaica)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 05:35 AM

Anyone still want to discuss this?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (Jamaica)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 02:02 AM

Refresh.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (Jamaica)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 06:54 AM

Does anyone know of any other Caribbean songs on this topic?