Origins: Old Dan Tucker

Subject: RE: Old Dan Tucker
From: GUEST,Rex on the work 'puter
Date: 23 Feb 04 - 11:23 AM

The bit of text that Joe included of the song itself has the chorus the way we have found it in early examples of the sheet music. (See the Levy sheet music collection)
Get out de way,
Get out de way,.....
That is the way we recorded it on our cd:
thread.cfm?threadid=61498&messages=18#1043982

I haven't seen this form of the chorus represented very much even though it seems to be way Emmett himself played it.

Rex

Subject: RE: Old Dan Tucker
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 Feb 04 - 01:12 PM

Hi! Billy Weeks. Do you mean "Hop Lite Loo"?
The comedian's name should be Frank Lum, not Lunn, my mistake.

My 1860s? date is based on the images on the border of this Masran (NY) sheet, and the address, No. 54, Chatham St. It could have appeared in earlier printings, and certainly the song was an 'Ethiopian' hit from 1843 onwards. No certain knowledge about the time Masran occupied those premises, but somewhere I saw the date 1850s-1860s.

Also on the sheet is the fake Irish "Little Pigs," which, with the line "Lilipulari, my dad was a bonny wee man," suggests "Lilibularo."

I will try to find out when 'Frank Lum' was active, but it is not easy to track these old minstrels down.

Rex, 'Get out de way' does seem to be the earliest- on the 1843 sheet music credited to James M. Deems and others.

Subject: RE: Old Dan Tucker
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 Feb 04 - 05:26 PM

The "Ethiopian Serenaders" shared the same name with other troupes.
Ethiopian Serenaders ("The Only Correct and Authorized Edition")
Sheet music cover shows five men, 1 with clackers, 2 with banjos,1 with squeezebox and 1 with tambourine. Printings with this picture:
1845 Philadelphia Gals
1847 My Old Aunt Sally (17 titles listed on cover, can't read)
1847 Old Dan Tucker
1847 Chloe Is My Wife
1848 Buffalo Gals
1848 Lucy Neal
1848 De Boatmen's Dance
1848 Uncle Gabriel
1848 Negro Fishermen
1848 The Old Gum Tree
1848 De Color'd Fancy Ball
1848 My Skiff Is By the Shore
1847 I Wish I Was in Ole Varginny

Nightingale Ethiopian Serenaders
1848, The Yaller Gal with the Josey On

Campbells Ethiopian Serenaders
1848, I See Her At the Window.

Dumbolton's Ethiopian Serenaders
1849, The Female Slave's Lament

Billy Weeks, which of these troupes appeared in London? Or was it another one?

Subject: RE: Old Dan Tucker
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 Feb 04 - 05:26 PM

Sorry, the above from American Memory.

Subject: RE: Old Dan Tucker
From: Billy Weeks
Date: 24 Feb 04 - 11:55 AM

Hi Q! (sounds like a measure of intelligence, don't it)

I didn't quite get the reference to Hop Lite Loo. Am I missing something?

The original American troupe known as the Ethiopian Serenaders (Pell, Harrington, White, Stanwood and Germon - left to r ight, in the order they are usually shown) are the same ones who appeared in London in 1846.   Pell played the bones ('clackers' sounds outway rude to my innocent ear). There is a music front of around the same date showing a superb likeness of G W White, with a banjo that seems to me so well drawn as to bear examination by experts.

The Nightingale and Campbells' ES I'm not sure about but will check my sources. I've seen at least one London front with Dumbolton mentioned, so presumably his ES also appeared here.

As a matterof interest (drifting away from Old Dan T a bit) a troupe called the Original Female American Serenaders appeared regularly at Renton Nicholson's Tableaux Vivans (sic) in Bow Street, London in 1848-9

Subject: RE: Old Dan Tucker
From: Billy Weeks
Date: 24 Feb 04 - 12:08 PM

I forgot to say that the Ethiopian Serenaders were hugely successful in London, partly because they wore evening dress. T D Rice and other pioneer soloists ten years earlier enjoyed immense popularity, but their plantation slave dress did not have the resonance here that it had in the States.

Subject: RE: Old Dan Tucker
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 Feb 04 - 01:42 PM

The five you name are the original. On their 'authorized editions' their pictures appeared with their instruments.
"American Memory" is the online name of the US Government's Smithsonian Museum website which covers history, music, photographs and about anything else you could name- seven million items in their catalogues- and material from other collections as well. Just enter a subject- in this case Ethiopian Serenaders- in 'Search' and you will find the songs I mentioned, plus others: American Memory

(Ignore the first item in the list- there was a later Chautaqua (sp?) circuit group which took that name)

"My Old Aunt Sally," 1847 is the first listed sheet music found with a Search for Ethiopian Serenaders (front cover showing Pell et al.). "Rosa Lee," 1847, is another in their collection, which I forgot to put on my list.

"Hop Lite Loo," which I posted 02 Feb 03 was the 1860s(?) song to which I mistakenly thought you were referring. It is not by them.

Subject: RE: Old Dan Tucker
From: Billy Weeks
Date: 24 Feb 04 - 04:40 PM

Hello again Q. I'm beginning to think we should really be in a new Ethiopian Serenaders thread. I have a number of their song sheets and related items by T D 'Jim Crow' Rice, Piccaninny Coleman and others.

One further thought. The standard group lithograph of the ES shows Pell on bones at one end and Germon on tambourine at the opposite end. Were they possibly the first minstrel 'endmen' ('cornermen' in Britain) to fix the names 'Tambo and Bones' to the principal crosstalk artists in a troupe?

Subject: RE: Old Dan Tucker
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Feb 09 - 04:42 PM

Ain't it amazin' how a song gets misused and abused? I always thought Dan Tucker was a reasonably crappy song but even poor old Dan doesn't deserve this!

Old Dan done in by the Wiggles


Spaw

Subject: RE: Old Dan Tucker
From: Megan L
Date: 21 Feb 09 - 04:51 PM

Spaw that wis jist doon right scarry

Subject: RE: Old Dan Tucker
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 22 Feb 09 - 12:34 PM

You'll find the antidote right here:

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/08/365-days-214---.html

Subject: RE: Old Dan Tucker
From: Don Firth
Date: 22 Feb 09 - 01:25 PM

Thank you, Mr. Beard! You've made my day.

(I can't stop laughing!!)

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Old Dan Tucker
From: Stringsinger
Date: 22 Feb 09 - 03:51 PM

The DiZurik sisters were well-known in early country music. They are really exquisite.

Subject: Tune Add: Old Dan Tucker
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Mar 17 - 05:04 PM

Here is the ABC file:

T: Old Dan Tucker
C:Dan Emmett (1843)
M: 2/4
L: 1/8
K: Gmaj
G G G E | G G G3/2 D/ | G G A B | D D E2 | G G G E | G/G/ G G2 |$ G G A (B/B/ | D) D E G | %8
B/ B B/ B2 | A G E G | A/ A A/ A2 | D D E G |$ B/ B B/ B2 | A G E G | A A A B/ z/ | D D E/ G3/2 |]

Please add this tune to old Dan tucker that would be helpful!

Subject: Lyr Add: Old Dan Tucker (Children Version)
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Apr 17 - 10:44 AM

Now Old Dan Tucker is a fine old man,
Washed his face in a frying pan,
Combed his head with a wagon wheel,
Died with a toothache in his heel.

Get out the way old Dan Tucker,
You're too late to get your supper,
Supper's over, and dinner's cookin',
Old Dan Tucker just stands there lookin'.

Now Old Dan Tucker is come to town,
Riding on a billygoat, leading a hound,
Hound dog bark and the billygoat jump,
Landed Dan Tucker on top of a stump.

Get out the way old Dan Tucker,
You're too late to get your supper,
Supper's over, and dinner's cookin',
Old Dan Tucker just stands there lookin'.

Now Old Dan Tucker, is come to town,
Swinging the ladies round and round,
First to the right and then to the left
And then to the one that he loves the best.

Get out the way old Dan Tucker,
You're too late to get your supper,
Supper's over, and dinner's cookin',
Old Dan Tucker just stands there lookin'.

Source:Songs for teaching

Subject: Lyr Add: Old Dan Tucker (Original Version)
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Apr 17 - 10:09 AM

1.
I come to town de udder night,
I hear de noise an saw de fight,
De watchman was a runnin roun,
crying Old Dan Tucker's come to town,

CHORUS
So get out de way!
get out de way!
get our de way!
Old Dan Tucker
your to late to
come to supper.

2.
Tucker is a nice old man,
He use to ride our darby ram;
He sent him whizzen down de hill,
If he hadn't got up he'd lay dar still.

(Gran' CHORUS)

3.
Here's my razor in good order
Magnum bonum--jis hab bought 'er;
Sheep shell oats, Tucker shell de corn,
I'll shabe you soon as de water get warm.

(Gran' CHORUS)

4.
Ole Dan Tucker an I got drunk,
He fell in de fire an kick up a chunk,
De charcoal got inside he shoe
Lor bless you honey how de ashes flew.

(Gran' CHORUS)

5.
Down de road foremost de stump,
Massa make me work de pump;
I pump so hard I broke de sucker,
Dar was work for ole Dan Tucker.

(Gran' CHORUS)

6.
I went to town to buy some goods
I lost myself in a piece of woods,
De night was dark I had to suffer,
It froze de heel of Daniel Tucker.

(Gran' CHORUS)

7.
Tucker was a hardened sinner,
He neber said his grace at dinner;
De ole sow squeel, de pigs did squall
He 'hole hog wid de tail and all.

(Gran' CHORUS)

===========================
[Source: pages 150-151 from
"Minstrel Songs, Old and New" (1883)]

And now ole Dan is a gone sucker,
And neber can go home to supper;
Old Dan he has had his last ride,
And de Banjo's buried by his side.

CHORUS
So get out de way, Ole Dan Tucker,
get our de way, Old Dan Tucker,
get our de way, Old Dan Tucker,
You're too late to come to supper.

Source:pdmusic

Old Dan Tucker Midi File

Old Dan Tucker Sheet Music

Subject: RE: Origins: Old Dan Tucker
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Apr 17 - 08:10 PM

Here's the version of "Old Dan Tucker" that we have. Anybody know where it's from?

OLD DAN TUCKER (from DT)
(Daniel Decatur Emmett)

cho: Get out the way for old Dan Tucker,
He's too late to have his supper,
Supper's over, dinner's a-cookin',
(alternate: Pot's on the fire and dinner's cooking)
But Old Dan Tucker's just standin' there lookin'.

Old Dan Tucker's a fine old man,
Washed his face in a frying pan,
Combed his hair with a wagon wheel,
Died of toothache in his heel.

Old Dan Tucker he come to town,
Riding on a billygoat, leading a hound,
Hound dog bark and the billygoat jump,
Throwed Dan Tucker on top of a stump.

Old Dan Tucker, he got drunk,
Fell in the fire and he kicked up a chunk,
Red hot coal got in his shoe,
Oh my Lawdy how the ashes flew.

Old Dan Tucker, he come to town,
Swinging the ladies round and round,
First to the right and then to the left
And then to the gal that he loved best.

I come to town the other night,
To hear the noise and see the fight
The people, they was running around (or: watchman, he was..)
Cryin' Old Dan Tucker's come to town.

Ol' Dan and me we did fall out,
An' what do you reckon it was about?
He stepped on my corn, I kicked him on the shin,
An' that's the way this row begin.

(And 3 less well-known verses:)

Ol' Dan Tucker clumb a tree,
His Lord and Master for to see,
The limb it broke and Dan got a fall,
Never got to see his Lord at all.

Ol' Dan Tucker went to the mill,
To git some meal to put in the swill;
The miller swore by the p'int of his knife
He never seed such a man in his life.

Dan Tucker begun in early life
To play the banjo and the fife;
He'd play the boys and gals to sleep
And then into some bunk he'd creep.

@banjo @minstrelshow
filename[ DANTUCKR
AJS
oct97

---

Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry for this song:

Old Dan Tucker

DESCRIPTION: Vignettes: Old Dan Tucker arrives to court the girls, sell his produce, and/or get drunk. Example: "Old Dan went down to the mill / To get some meal to put in the swill. / The miller swore by the point of his knife / He never seen such a man in his life."
AUTHOR: attributed to Daniel Decatur Emmett
EARLIEST DATE: 1841? (Emerson says 1843)
KEYWORDS: bawdy playparty talltale
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So) Australia
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Randolph 521, "Old Dan Tucker" (3 texts plus 2 excerpts, 1 tune)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 431-433, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 tune, 3 texts)
BrownIII 82, "Old Dan Tucker" (6 texts); 509, "Nigger in the Woodpile" (1 two-line fragment, probably this though the vulgar idiom of the title is obviously common to many songs)
BrownSchinhanV 82, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 tuns plus a text excerpt)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 188, (no title) (2 fragments, one clearly this and the other a Dan Tucker stanza but with "Ole Aunt Dinah" in Dan's place); also p. 199, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, with a verse from this song though it has a chorus about "Sambo")
Brewster 86, "Old Dan Tucker" (4 short text)
Wolford, pp. 78-80=WolfordRev, pp. 180-182, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, 1 tune)
ThompsonNewYork, p. 274, "(Old Dan Tucker)" (1 short text, probably localized)
Fuson, p. 163, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text)
Cambiaire, p. 140, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 fragment)
Boswell/Wolfe 81, pp. 130-132, "Walk, Tom Wilson" (1 text, 1 tune, about half "Old Dan Tucker" and half "Walk Tom Wilson," with probably a few other stray elements as well)
Owens-2ed, p. 155, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard, #200, "Old Dan Tucker" (3 texts)
Meredith/Anderson, p. 263, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 160-162, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 27, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 258-262, "Old Dan Tucker" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman, pp. 28-29, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Emerson, pp. 34-35, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 52, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 240, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 81, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text)
DT, DANTUCKR
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 382-384, "Old Dan Tucker" (2 texts, 1 tune)
ST R521 (Full)
Roud #390
RECORDINGS:
Bentley Ball, "Old Dan Tucker" (Columbia A3087, 1920)
Harry C. Browne "Old Dan Tucker" (Columbia A1999, 1916)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Old Dan Tucker" (OKeh 40263, 1925; rec. 1924)
Pat Ford, "Old Dan Tucker" [fragment] (AFS A 4211 B2, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters, "Old Dan Tucker" (Brunswick 295, 1929; rec. 1928)
Charlie Jones & his Kentucky Corn Crackers, "Old Dan Tucker" (Rondo R-168, n.d., prob. late 1940s)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Old Dan Tucker" (Vocalion 15033, 1925)
Pete Seeger, "Old Dan Tucker" (on PeteSeeger17)
Judge Sturdy's Orchestra "Old Dan Tucker" (Victor 20102, 1926; rec. 1925)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Old Dan Tucker" (Columbia 15382-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(227a), " Old Dan Tucker" ("Dan Tucker lived in a nice little hut"), Birt (London), 1833-1851; also Harding B 11(3639), Harding B 15(227a), Harding B 15(84a), "[Old] Dan Tucker" ("Dan Tucker lived in a nice little hut"); Harding B 11(952), "Old Dan Tucker" ("I came across de ocean wide"); Harding B 11(927), Firth b.28(38) View 2 of 2)[some words illegible] , "Ole Tan Tucker"("Ole Tan Tucker cum to town one night"); Harding B 15(227b), Firth c.17(70), "Old Dan Tucker" ("I came ober here de oder day")
LOCSheet, sm1843 031800, "Old Dan Tucker" ("I come to town de oder night"), F. D. Benteen (), 1843 (tune); also sm1845 791510, "Old Dan Tucker"("I come to town de udder night"), (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Clear the Track" (tune)
cf. "Johnny, Get Your Gun (II)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The End of Big Bill Snyder" (tune)
cf. "Old Ann Tucker" (derivative: female version)
SAME TUNE:
Clear the Track (I) (File: SCW48)
Bryan Campaign Song (File: Wels078B)
The End of Big Bill Snyder (Greenway-AFP, pp. 30-31)
The Workingman's Train (Greenway-AFP, pp. 87-88)
Henry Clay (Hudson, p. 211; cf. "Henry Clay Songs," File: SRW039)
A Song for the Campaign (File: TPS061)
Riot in the City Hall Park, June 18, 1857 (WolfAmericanSongSheets p. 135)
Our Flag Is Up ("Come Whigs and Patriots, one and all, Our Suffering Nation gives a 'call'") (Lawrence, p. 320)
The New Party ("Come all ye who're fond of singing, Let us set a song a-ringing) (Lawrence, p. 323)
John Merryman ("John Merryman, the Marylander") (WolfAmericanSongSheets, p. 190)
Position and Call to Start a Tucker/Old Dan Tucker (square dance call) (Welsch, p.. 110-111)
The Pastor's Daughter Oh! Boatman Haste (words by George Pope Morris, 1844; cf. Jon W. Finson, _The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song_, Oxford University Press, 1994, p.31)
NOTES: Randolph-Legman I offers a few bawdy verses to this otherwise immaculate dance tune. - EC
This was originally published as by "Dan Tucker Jr.," but it is generally believe that it was by Dan Emmett -- his first significant work. For a description of the sheet music, see Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 52. - RBW
The broadsides are more varied than usual. Note the differences in titles and first lines. - BS
This was apparently the first song ever sung by Dan Emmett and the Virginia Minstrels in their very first audition in 1843 (see details in the notes on "Dixie"). The rest, obviously, was history.
There is dispute over Emmett's role in the composition. Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 178, says that it was first published in 1842 by Millet's Music Saloon, with no attribution. The 1843 version more strongly associated with Emmett has a different form; it makes Old Dan a "a primitive backwoodsman with awesome abilities." Finson's note 39 cites S. Foster Damon to the effect that Emmett wrote the song in 1830.
The most likely explanation for all this, it seems to me, is that Emmett originally wrote the song but had no way of publishing it. Someone put out what amounts to a bootleg edition. This may have been rewritten, or perhaps Emmett himself, once the bootleg came out, rewrote the song to allow a separate copyright. But I can't prove any of this. And I would certainly admit the possibility of earlier folktales about Old Dan. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: R521

---

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography

The Ballad Index Copyright 2016 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

Subject: ADD Version: Old Dan Tucker
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Apr 17 - 08:22 PM

OLD DAN TUCKER

Ol' Dan Tucker's a fine old man,
Washed his face in a fryin' pan,
Combed his head wid a wagon wheel
And died with a toothache in his heel.

CHORUS:
Git out the way, ol' Dan Tucker,
You too late to git yo' supper,
Supper's over an' dinner's cookin'
— An ol' Dan Tucker jes' standin' there lookin'!

I come to town the other night,
To hear the noise and see the fight,
The watchman he was a-runnin' around,
Cryin', "Ol' Dan Tucker's come to town."

Ol' Dan Tucker come to town,
Ridin' a billygoat an' leadin' a houn',
Houn' barked and the billygoat jumped,
Throwed ol' Dan right straddle of a stump.

Ol' Dan Tucker dumb a tree,
His Lord and Master for to see,
The limb, it broke an' Dan got a fall,
Never got to see his Lord at all.

Ol' Dan Tucker went to the mill,
To git some meal to put in the swill;
The miller swore by the p'int of his knife
He never had seed such man in his life.

Ol' Dan Tucker he got drunk
Fell in the fire and he kicked up a chunk;
Red hot coal got in his shoe,
Lord godamighty, how the ashes flew!

Ol' Dan Tucker he come to town,
Swingin' the ladies round an' around;
First to the right an' then to the left,
An' then to the one that you love best.

Ol' Dan an' me, we did fall out,
An' what do you reckon it was about?
He stepped on my corn,
I kicked him on the shin,
An' that's the way this row begin.

Ol' Dan Tucker begun in early life
To play the banjo an' the fife;
He'd play the boys and gals to sleep
An' then into his bunk he'd creep.


Source: Best Loved American Folk Songs (Folk Song U.S.A.), by John A. & Alan Lomax, 1947. #27, pp. 92-93

Subject: ADD Version: Old Dan Tucker (Seeger)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Apr 17 - 08:35 PM

Here's a modernized and abridged version from Pete Seeger:

OLD DAN TUCKER

Now, old Dan Tucker's a fine old man,
Washed his face in a fryin' pan,
Combed his head with a wagon wheel
And died with a toothache in his heel.

CHORUS:
Get out the way, old Dan Tucker,
You're too late to get your supper,
Get out the way, old Dan Tucker,
You're too late to get your supper,

Now old Dan Tucker is come to town
Riding a billy goat — leading a hound
Hound dog bark and the billy goat jump
Landed Dan Tucker on top of the stump.

Now old Dan Tucker he got drunk
Fell in the fire and kicked up a chunk
Red hot coal got in his shoe
And oh my lawd how the ashes flew

Now old Dan Tucker is come to town
Swinging the ladies round and round
First to the right and then to the left
Then to the girl that he Loves best.

Source: American Favorite Ballads, by Pete Seeger, page 52
Oak Publications, 1961, 1970

Seeger's notes: By Dan Emmett, who also composed "Dixie." It was the big bit song of 1844 ("Oh Susanna" came in 1848) and and is another example of a minstrel tune that got taken back into folk tradition and further changed.

---

Click to play (joeweb)

Subject: RE: Origins: Old Dan Tucker
From: GUEST,Joy Williams
Date: 23 Apr 17 - 07:00 PM

Old Dan Tucker was my great grandmother's great grandfather. He lived in Elbert Co, Ga. He owned a large plantation and operated a ferry. He was a Methodist minister who took a great interest in the nearby slaves, teaching them and praying with them. They loved him. They would often offer him supper when he visited late in the afternoons. Family history passed down says they started singing a song about him that they would sing while working the fields. They ended their verses with "Get out of the way Old Dan Tucker, you too late to get yo supper". The song was passed down through generations and lyrics continued to change from different ones wanting credit for writing the song. Old Dan Tucker died in Elbert Co, GA in 1818. My information came from family stories my great grandmother told my father. My father used to love to sing about Old Dan Tucker.

Subject: RE: Origins: Old Dan Tucker
From: GUEST,Marilyn
Date: 02 Jun 20 - 06:06 PM

My grandpa used to sing this to us kids when we were small--the 1950's. Now I am teaching it to my grandson. He loves it just like I did. Kids like lots of silly songs.

Subject: RE: Origins: Old Dan Tucker
From: Lighter
Date: 05 Nov 21 - 07:02 PM

Attakapas Register (Franklin, La.) (Sept. 5, 1861), p.3:

"‘GRAND ARMY’ MARCH.—Lincoln’s army marched to Manassas to the tune of ‘I wished I was in Dixie;’ as soon as they got there…they left to the tune of ‘Git out the way, Old Dan Tucker.’"

Subject: RE: Origins: Old Dan Tucker
From: Bill D
Date: 25 Apr 23 - 10:12 AM

For historical interest... my father didn't sing, but used to recite the poem. He had one verse from his childhood I've never heard anywhere else... and of course, would not be appropriate. I suspect it was some local parody.. As a kid, I never thought of it as racist, just funny.

" Old Dan Tucker was a fine old booster,
He used to ride a bob-tailed rooster.
Rode him up a hickory steeple,
And there he found some colored people.
Some were black... and some were blacker.
Some so black, they chewed tobaccer."