Subject: Origins: The worms crawl in.../Hearse Song
From:
Joe Offer
Date: 19 Oct 22 - 08:07 PM
Here's a video of mixed quality about the origins of the Hearse Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkrpDizu2Sw
There's a very nice entry in the Traditional Ballad Index: Worms Crawl In, The DESCRIPTION: "Did you ever think when the hearse goes by That you might be the next to die?.... The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, The worms play pinochle on your snout...." A detailed description of how corruption attacks a body in a grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923
KEYWORDS: death burial humorous nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 142, "Old Woman All Skin and Bones" (4 texts plus 2 excerpts and mention of 3 more, all basically "Skin and Bones (The Skin and Bones Lady)," but the "B" text seems to have picked up a "Worms Crawl In" chorus)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 444, "The Hearse Song" (2 texts, 1 tune, containing these lyrics but with particularizations regarding a military burial; the result would probably qualify as a separate song if better known)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 556-557, "The Hearse Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 242, "The Hearse Song" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 124, "Did You Ever Think" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 657-658+, "The Worms Crawl In (The Hearse Song)"
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #92, pp. 86-88, "(There was a lady all skin and bone)" (contains this verse)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Gloria Dickens, "Childhood Songs from North Carolina" Vol. XXI, No. 1 (Apr 1973), p. 5, "Have you stopped to think when the hearse goes by" (1 text)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 52, "(Don't ever laugh as a Hearse goes by)" (1 text, from user 2wonderY, posted August 31, 2021)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 103, 110, "The Hearse Song" (notes only)
DT, WORMSCRA
ST San444 (Partial)
Roud #15546
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Alonzo the Brave and Fair Imogene" (lyrics)
cf. "The Hearse Song (II)" (lyrics, theme)
SAME TUNE:
The Scabs Crawl In (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 13; on PeteSeeger30)
Rootie-Toot-Toot (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 76)
NOTES [186 words]: The Pankakes report that this has been attributed to the Crimean War. They do not cite a source for this information.
The key line, "The worms crawl out, the worms crawl in" appears as part of "Skin and Bones (The Skin and Bones Lady)" in the revised 1810 edition of Gammer Gurton's Garland, but it may have been an editorial insertion.
A similar lyric is found in the ballad of "Alonzo the Brave and Fair Imogene," but I don't know if that's a case of cross-dependence (let alone which way the dependence goes) or an independent evolution.
Charles Clay Doyle published a study of this, "'As the Hearse Goes By': The Modern Child's Memento Mori,' in Francis Edward Abernathy, ed., What's Going On? (In Modern Texas Folklore) (1976; the Doyle essay begins on p. 175). This documents the widespread nature of the song (without giving really detailed statistics about its distribution). It also compares it with a Middle English tradition of songs about bodily decay -- a comparison I find rather a stretch.
I once saw a claim this was written by Joseph Whiteford, Gregg Manfredi, Wes Planten. I doubt it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: San444
Hearse Song (II), The DESCRIPTION: "Did you ever think as the hearse roll by That the next trip they take they'll lay you by, With your boots a-swinging from the back of a roan...." The soldier will inevitably end in the hands of the grave-diggers; the soldier's body will rot in the ground
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: war death soldier burial
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 188-190, "The Hearse Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15546
NOTES [29 words]: Roud lumps this with "The Worms Crawl In," with which of course it shares its initial words. But I would consider this a separate song though derived from the same original. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: NiMo188
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THE WORMS CRAWL IN (Digital Tradition Lyrics)
If you should see a hearse go by
You'll know that you are the next to die
They wrap you up in a big white sheet
And bury you down about six feet deep
It all goes well for about a week
And then the coffin begins to leak
The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out
The mice* play pinochle on your snout
One little worm that isn't so shy
Craws in your ear and out your eye
Your eyes they turn a gushy green
Your stomach turns to whipped ice-cream
You spread it all on a piece of bread
And that's what you eat when you're dead.
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From the singing of Judy Cook, who remembers it from childhood.
Variations remembered by others:
*mice - worms Dennis Cook
filename[ WORMSCRA
DC
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