Lyr Req: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn

Subject: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From:
Date: 20 Nov 96 - 11:51 AM

Help!!!!! I need these lyrics....

Subject: RE: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From:
Date: 20 Nov 96 - 11:53 AM

Sorry about that......I forgot to put my add on the first thread.....I really need these lyrics.....:>)

Subject: RE: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: Kevin
Date: 20 Nov 96 - 12:02 PM

It's in the DT. Search under blue-tail fly. (You need the hyphen.)

Subject: RE: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From:
Date: 14 Aug 03 - 06:16 PM

Hi,
Can anyone please help me?? Who released this song as a record in the UK?? My dad is wanting a copy but as i dont the know the artist i cant try get a copy.......
Thanks in advance,
Kaz.x

Subject: RE: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: greg stephens
Date: 14 Aug 03 - 06:50 PM

Burl Ives was the man with the hit(rather a minor hit, and a long time ago)

Subject: RE: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: GUEST,Steve
Date: 14 Sep 03 - 06:48 PM

Billie Jo Spears sings this

Subject: Lyr Add: JIMMY CRACK CORN AND I DON'T CARE
From: GUEST,Elfmonkey
Date: 28 Sep 03 - 07:30 PM

Here are the lyrics for Jimmy Cracked Corn and I Don't Care


Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
The Master's gone away.

When I was young I used to wait
On my Master and bring him his plate,
And give him the bottle when he got dry
And brush away the blue tail fly.

Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
The Master's gone away.

When he would ride around the farm,
So numerous the flies they all would swarm,
One chanced to bite him on the thigh,
Oh, the devil take the blue tail fly.

Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
The Master's gone away.

When he would ride in the afternoon,
I would follow with the hickory broom,
The pony began to run and shy,
When bitten by the blue tail fly.

Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
The Master's gone away.

The pony run, he jumped, he pitched,
He threw my Master in the ditch,
And when he died the juries asked why,
I blamed it on the blue-tail fly

Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
The Master's gone away.

They burried him under the 'simmon tree,
His epitaph was there to see:
"Upon this stone I'm forced to lie
A victim of the blue tail fly."

Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
The Master's gone away.



Background-- Corn cracking is grinding
corn for use as grits and meal.
"Jimmy" is a corruption
of "gimme," so the song essentially
means "I would be willing to eat
something as vile as cracked corn and
still be happy if I weren't a slave.

Subject: RE: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: GUEST,Elfmonkey
Date: 28 Sep 03 - 07:31 PM

By the way, it's an old negro spiritual.

Subject: RE: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: Joybell
Date: 28 Sep 03 - 07:51 PM

Oh no the monkeys again. Negro spiritual?? See related threads for more possibilities and more monkeys. I did find a song called "The Blue-tailed Fly" that was sung in London in 1824 but posting that info. got me into all kinds of trouble. see related thread.

Subject: RE: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Sep 03 - 08:00 PM

Which of the related threads would that be?

Subject: RE: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Sep 03 - 08:35 PM

The "first" version of "De Blue Tail Fly," 1846, is given in thread 40458, 24 Oct. 01. Note that the refrain "Jim Crack Corn" is not in this original:
Blue Tail Fly

In the same thread, "Jim Crack Corn," treated as a separate song, is given by Masato Sakurai, along with "Blue Tailed Fly," from Christy's Nigga Songster, c. 1850. The minstrel shows revised and reworked material constantly, but these versions are the earliest in print. The two songs were soon combined in some performances.

No way are they Negro spirituals. They are minstrel songs. Some speculate that the origin could be African-American, in part based on Negro secular songs, but so far, no evidence has been found.

The thread linked here, and others linked at the head of this thread, contain much more information (as well as some nonsense) about these songs.

Subject: RE: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: Joybell
Date: 28 Sep 03 - 08:35 PM

"Help: Jimmy Crack Corn (36)"    Sorry I'm not very good at the technical bits like putting in links, but it's at the top here. Is that ok?

Subject: RE: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Sep 03 - 08:46 PM

Added note: The song in combined form appeared in 1846 as "Jim Crack Corn or the Blue Tail Fly," pub. by F. D. Benteen, Baltimore. I believe that this also was pointed out in the thread linked above or one of the others at the head of this thread.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: The O'Meara
Date: 29 Sep 03 - 10:32 AM

If nobody cares, why did they write a song about it?

Sorry.

O'Meara

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Sep 03 - 07:04 PM

Tim, this has been gone over so much that I'm sure nobody cares any more.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Blue Tail Fly/Jimmy Crack Corn
From: Joybell
Date: 29 Sep 03 - 07:12 PM

Shoo fly don't bother me
Shoo fly don't bother me
Shoo fly don't bother me