|
01 Jun 11 - 01:46 AM (#3163530) Subject: Lyr Add: BIG BIG SAMBO GYAL (Jamaica) From: MorwenEdhelwen1 BIG BIG SAMBO GYAL Verse 1 Big big Sambo gyal and she cyaan do a ting. Big big Sambo gyal and she cyaan do a ting. Chorus Sen' she back to she mumma, O! Sen' she back to she puppa, O! Di gyal cyaan wash an di gyaal cyaan cook, Sen she back to she mumma. Gyal yu waa fi come kill me fi dundas, Gyal yu waa fi come kill me O, She tek ackee bwile soup, she tek 'natta color i'. Gyal yu waa fi come kill mi. 2. Han' full a ring an' she cyaan do a ting. Han' full a ring an' she cyaan do a ting. Chorus. (from "Mango Time: Folk Songs of Jamaica" collected by Noel Dexter and Geoffrey Taylor) This song is similar to the Belafonte translated version of "Angelique-O." This theme of the woman who can't do domestic chores seems to be common in Caribbean folk songs. Are there any songs from other traditions that are similar? |
|
01 Jun 11 - 04:46 AM (#3163573) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: MorwenEdhelwen1 I found a snippet of a book on Google Books- a book about the history of Jamaica published in 1947, which prints the lyrics to this song. |
|
01 Jun 11 - 05:52 PM (#3163926) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: MorwenEdhelwen1 Refresh. Anyone want to comment? |
|
01 Jun 11 - 07:25 PM (#3163953) Subject: Lyr Add: JESSIE MAHON / PACK SHE BACK TO SHE MA From: Q (Frank Staplin) PACK SHE BACK TO SHE MA A pretty little girl name Jessie Mahon, She lazy since she born, De girl couldn' cook, she won' read a book, She pack she back to she ma. Chorus- Pack she back to she ma, Oh, pack she back to she ma, Such a decent girl like Jessie Mahon, Pack she back to she ma. A pretty little girl like Jessie Mahon, Uh miss she now she gone. De girl couldn' clean, she was so mean, So, pack she back to she ma. Barbadian version of "Pack She Back." http://silvertorch.com/barbsongs.html |
|
01 Jun 11 - 11:14 PM (#3164011) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: MorwenEdhelwen1 Wow! Not coincidentally, in the "Folk Songs of Barbados" book, "Jessie Mahon", with melody, is included. What is the purpose of these types of songs about girls who can't do the housework? Warning men against the dangers of marriage and/or cohabitation? |
|
02 Jun 11 - 01:38 AM (#3164037) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: ChanteyLass . . . and giving daughters a reason to learn domestic chores so that their husbands won't send them back to their parents? |
|
02 Jun 11 - 03:26 AM (#3164056) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: MorwenEdhelwen1 Probably. Also interesting is the fact that in an early 1940s collection version of this song- mentioned as a "folk song'- this chorus says "Send 'im back to 'im mumma." |
|
02 Jun 11 - 03:33 AM (#3164057) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: MorwenEdhelwen1 http://www.timespub.tc/2002/06/rediscovering-the-hidden-culture-folk-songs/ The author of the article on this site mentions being taught this song as apart of a medley. |
|
02 Jun 11 - 03:34 AM (#3164058) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: MorwenEdhelwen1 EDIT: "site". |
|
02 Jun 11 - 04:30 AM (#3164072) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: MorwenEdhelwen1 I'll try that link again."Big Big Sambo Gal" in the Turks and Caicos |
|
02 Jun 11 - 06:27 PM (#3164412) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: MorwenEdhelwen1 Refresh. Anyone else have opinions? |
|
02 Jun 11 - 09:45 PM (#3164490) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: ChanteyLass Could "Send 'im back to 'im mumma." be the result of a dialect that does not use different words for male and female pronouns, so that 'im means 'er--uh, her? |
|
02 Jun 11 - 11:59 PM (#3164538) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: MorwenEdhelwen1 It could be. But another book suggests it might be the folk origin. "Further on the folk/popular continuum the gender is more correct". Are there songs from other traditions besides West Indian/Caribbean talking about sending girls who can't do housework back to their parents? |
|
03 Jun 11 - 04:18 AM (#3164590) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: MorwenEdhelwen1 In fact, it might be an older version of Jamaican dialect. |
|
03 Jun 11 - 09:43 PM (#3164961) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: MorwenEdhelwen1 Refresh. |
|
10 Jun 11 - 08:06 PM (#3168685) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: Q (Frank Staplin) "Jessie Mahon" "Another banter aimed at the sloppy, housekeeping woman. Barbadian men place great stress on the ability of their women to cook and clean well and many romances founder on this crucial factor. Some men have no compunction about sending the young woman packing back to her Ma if they finf her wanting in these areas." Marshall, McGeary and Thompson, 1981, Folk Songs of Barbados, Ian Randle, Publishers, Kingston, Jamaica. |
|
10 Jun 11 - 08:14 PM (#3168688) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: Q (Frank Staplin) The version I found on the net and posted, silvertorch site, is identical to "Jessie Mahon (Pack She Back to Her Ma)", with musical score, pp. 84-85, in Marshall, McGeary and Thompson, 1981, Folk Songs of Barbados. |
|
11 Jun 11 - 10:37 PM (#3169122) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: Q (Frank Staplin) "Pack She Back to She Ma" was copyright in 1943, Massie Patterson and Lionel Belasco, copyright M. Baron Co., New York. Massie Patterson, the singer, may have recorded the song. Re-printed by permission in Jim Morse, Folk songs of the Caribbean, 1958, Bantam Books. In notes with another "Sambo" song, Walter Jekyll, 1904, remarks: "A Sambo is the child of a brown mother and a black father, being a cross between black and white. The Sambo lady, very proud of the strain of white in her blood, turns up her nose at the black man. She wants a white man for a husband. Failing to find one, she will not marry at all." Lyr. Add.: SAMBO LADY Digging-Sing Sambo lady ho! Sambo, Sambo lady ho! Sambo, Sambo no like black man, Sambo, Sambo, want white man, Sambo, Sambo, no get white man, Sambo, Sambo, no want man again, Sambo, Sambo lady, oh! Sambo. With musical score, LXXVI. Walter Jekyll, 1904, Jamaican Song and Story, Dover reprints. |
|
12 Jun 11 - 04:04 AM (#3169184) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: MorwenEdhelwen1 Q, thanks for those comments. The implication would be then taht the girl doesn't bother to learn chores because she thinks of herself as superior. |
|
12 Jun 11 - 04:05 AM (#3169185) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: MorwenEdhelwen1 *that* |
|
12 Jun 11 - 01:01 PM (#3169363) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: Q (Frank Staplin) The Massie Patterson and Lionel Belasco sheet music for "Pack She Back..." I referred June 11 is in Massie Patterson and Lionel Belasco, 1943, Calypso Songs of the West Indies, pp. 6-7. |
|
27 Jun 11 - 09:49 AM (#3177129) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: MorwenEdhelwen1 Talking of "Jamaican Song and Story", I found the Porject Gutenberg ebook, and found another song which is related/could be a variant of "Big Big Sambo Gyal". It is called "Bungo Moolatta" and has the "han' full a ring" line: CXXVII. Schottische. Bungo Moolatta, Bungo Moolatta, Who dé go married you? You hand full a ring an' you can't do a t'ing, Who dé go married you? Me give you me shirt fe wash, You burn up me shirt with iron, You hand full a ring an' you can't do a t'ing, Who dé go married you? -Walter Jekyll, Jamaican Song and Story |
|
27 Jun 11 - 12:57 PM (#3177241) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: Q (Frank Staplin) "Bungo Moolatta," quoted above by Morwen, is CXXVII, a Dancing Tune, p. 225 in Walter Jekyll, 1907, Jamaican Song and Story. Printed with musical score. Walter Jekyll, in a note, defines the usages in Jamaica: Bungo- "...a rough uncivilized African." Mulatto- "...the child of two Brown parents, Brown being the offspring of Black and White. He has rather a yellow skin." |
|
28 Jun 11 - 08:32 AM (#3177727) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: MorwenEdhelwen1 Refresh. |
|
29 Jun 11 - 08:25 AM (#3178251) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: MorwenEdhelwen1 Apparently this song was also collected by Louise Bennett as "Big Sambo Gal." |
|
29 Jun 11 - 08:35 AM (#3178257) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: MorwenEdhelwen1 Have added the lyrics from here to the "Lyr Req: Angelique-O" thread. |
|
29 Jun 11 - 02:27 PM (#3178458) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: GUEST,Jim McLean MorwenEdhelwen1 you ask "This theme of the woman who can't do domestic chores seems to be common in Caribbean folk songs. Are there any songs from other traditions that are similar?" I think the Scottish song the Wee Cooper o' Fife is one. |
|
29 Jun 11 - 06:01 PM (#3178643) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (jamaica) From: MorwenEdhelwen1 Thanks! |
|
28 Aug 11 - 07:43 AM (#3213910) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (Jamaica) From: MorwenEdhelwen1 Refresh. |
|
29 Aug 11 - 05:35 AM (#3214374) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (Jamaica) From: MorwenEdhelwen1 Anyone still want to discuss this? |
|
30 Aug 11 - 02:02 AM (#3214976) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (Jamaica) From: MorwenEdhelwen1 Refresh. |
|
30 Aug 11 - 06:54 AM (#3215056) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Big Big Sambo Gyal (Jamaica) From: MorwenEdhelwen1 Does anyone know of any other Caribbean songs on this topic? |