Subject: RE: Follow the Drinkin' Gourd, by Burl Ives?
From:
GUEST
Date: 17 May 05 - 08:54 PM
More than one question here, some of which I considered in another thread, but navigation too uncertain at this time.
1 Song variants
a. Four lines from Tennessee, collected on the NC border (by H. B. Parks, 1912).
Foller the drinkin' gou'd (2x)
No one know, the wise man say,
Foller the drinkin' gou'd.
Parks says he heard the same four lines later in Louisville (1913).
This was followed by another fragment from Texas, also coll. by H, B, Parks (1918):
Foller the Risen Lawd (2x)
The bes' thing the Wise Man say
Foller the Risen Lawd.
This would seem to be from the same song. The singers said they got it from a black revivalist with whom they traveled. Both verses may be fragments of an old spiritual of gospel song.
The song itself was also collected by Parks (1918?), from "an old Negro" at College Station, TX (home of Texas A&M University, with some 45000 students). It was not published by Parks until ten years later.
The song in the DT has been embroidered and enlarged by the singer, Paul Campbell). Here are Parks lyrics:
Lyr. Add: Foller the Drinkin' Gou'd
When the sun come back,
When the firs' quail call,
Then the time is come
Foller the drinkin' gou'd.
Chorus:
Foller the drinkin' gou'd,
Foller the drinkin' gou'd;
For the ole man say,
"Foller the drinkin' gou'd."
The riva's bank am a very good road,
The dead trees show the way,
Lef' foot, peg foot goin' on,
Foller the drinkin' gou'd.
The riva ends a-tween two hills
Foller the drinkin' gou'd;
'Nuther riva on the other side
Follers the drinkin' gou'd.
Wha the little riva
Meet the grea' big un,
The ole man waits-
Foller the drinkin' gou'd.
Parks goes on to say that there was a story in the records of the Anti-Slavery Society of a peg leg sailor who was a conductor on the underground railroad.
The song was recorded by Pete Seeger and others, and the story was spread afar.
No other record or fragment of the song has been found, although 77 years have passed since publication.
No record of any such underground railroad conductor has been found, although there are many descriptions of the exploits of conductors on the underground railroad, and of the many thousands that they escorted to freedom (briefly discussed in my post of 13 Apr 05, thread 17760).
In that thread, I said the task of conducting the slaves fell to careful, well-organized members of the Underground Railway. One conductor, Robert Purvis, is credited with transporting 9000. Thirty thousand reached Canada.
The 'first station' had to be reached by the escapee by following careful directions which reached him by word of mouth and diagrams drawn in the dirt.
I commented that "Few slaves would be dumb enough not to know the dangers of simple-mindedly "following the drinking gourd."
My personal belief is that Parks concocted the story, partly from an old spiritual, and abetted by wishful thinking, and perhaps a desire to put one over on J. Frank Dobie, at that time editor for the Texas Folk-Lore Society (Or did someone at Texas A&M University have a hand in it?).
H. B. Parks, "Follow The Drinking Gourd," pp. 81-84, in Publications of the Texas Folk-Lore Society, 1928, Number VII, "Follow de Drinkin'
Gou'd."
Others have questioned the story, but I must emphasize that the above remarks are solely mine.
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