Origins: Little Sally Walker Other versions

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Little Sally Walker Other versions
From: Azizi
Date: 13 Aug 05 - 02:15 AM

As folks used to say "I got a whole heap" of Sally songs. Yep.

First off, as to "Little Sally" 's roots-see this excerpt from Alan Lomax, J.G Elder, and Bess Lomax Hawes' "Brown Girl In The Ring, an Anthology of Song Games from the Eastern Caribbean" [Bew York, Pantheon Book, 1997, p. 140-141}:

"When the popular Trinidadian singer King Radio made a calypso hit of this song [Little Sally Waters] in the 1950s, he was using the most popular of all African American children's song games, playing all over the southern United States and the West Indies. The forces of variation at work in child lore have renamed her "Little Sally Walker" in the United Sttes and "Little Sandy Girl" in Trinidad. But this heroine of black girlhood in the new world has her roots in ancient British lore. Once it was the custom for British brides to step over a saucer of water on the way to their weddings; thus "Little Sally Water" may in its original form be a survival of early European beliefs about water and purification rituals..."

-snip-

I have other references to this early European ritual of stepping over water as a purification or fertility symbol and will look them and post them in this thread later..

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Little Sally Walker Other versions
From: Janie
Date: 12 Aug 05 - 11:26 PM

Hi Kirsten,

    I have stumbled across a number of variants and derivativees (or derivativeers;^), but "Spirit in the Dark" has not been one of them. Interesting!

    I don't think anyone has a good grip on the origin of "Sally Walker" tunes and phrases. It appears that similar lines occur many songs of African-American origin, from children's street rhymes and circle games to field songs, but the version I gave above as sung by my friend is the only version I have ever heard. (And yes, I have tried to track down my old friend.)

Janie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Little Sally Walker Other versions
From: GUEST,kirsten anderberg
Date: 12 Aug 05 - 11:10 PM

I do not know this song you are referring to, but I recognize some of the lyrics from a song I saw a video of, from a live show with Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin at the Filmore in the 1960's, the tune was called Spirit in the Dark.

I actually perform that song, Spirit in the Dark...it is a sort of gospel song, but it has a part that says, "It's like sally walker, sittin in her saucer, that's how you do it, so get on up to it, ride, sally ride, put your hands on your hips and cover your eyes, and move, with spirit, come on and move with spirit, are you gettin the spirit, are you gettin it in the dark?"

Subject: Lyr Req: Little Sally Walker Other versions
From: Janie
Date: 12 Aug 05 - 11:05 PM

I am trying to reconstruct a version og "Little Sally Walker" a friend in high school, (30+ yrs) used to sing. She probably learned it from some female folksinger's album. What I remember is somewhat different from all the versions in the DT, sources from googling some of the lyrics, or versions mentioned in several threads on related topics. I'm hoping some one (Azizi, maybe?) might be familiar with this version, know more verses, and know who may have performed it.

Here is what I have. It is a very simple, bluesy melody, with a simple, sultry guitar part.

Little Sally Walker, sittin' in a saucer
Tryin' to get the Old Man to come back home.

chorus (refrain?)

Gotta ride, Sally, ride with your head up high.
Put your hands on your hips. Let your backbone slip.
Shake it to the E-ast. Shake it to the W-est.
Shake it to the one that you love best.
I ain't never, no never been satisfied....satisfied.

Hey Mr. Rabbit, you got a mighty habit
Runnin down the path now where (while?)I can't see.

Gotta ride, Sally....

Thanks.

Janie