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28 Jan 26 - 04:57 PM (#4235069) Subject: Origins: The Ring on my Finger Is Johnny Give Me From: Joe Offer Pete Seeger sang this in his 1963 "We Shall Overcome" Carnegie Hall concert. Anybody know where the song comes from? I take it that it's a play party song, but it doesn't come up in the usual indexes. [THE RING ON MY FINGER IS] JOHNNY GIVE ME The ring on my finger is Johnny give me. The ring on my finger is Johnny give me. The ring on my finger is Johnny give me. Johnny alone until morning. The shoes that I wear they are Johnny give me. The shoes that I wear they are Johnny give me. The shoes that I wear they are Johnny give me. Johnny alone until morning. The dress that I wear is Johnny give me. The dress that I wear is Johnny give me. The dress that I wear it is Johnny give me. Johnny alone until morning. Johnny says that he loves me but I do not believe, Johnny says that he loves me but I do not believe, Johnny says that he loves me but I do not believe, Johnny alone until morning. The ring on my finger is Johnny give me. The ring on my finger is Johnny give me. The ring on my finger is Johnny give me. Johnny alone until morning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itaUvVCDABc. Pete says it was collected by Roger Abrahams, "found on this little island." I'm guessing it was a Georgia Sea Island song. Johnny alone until morning could be (Johnny I'll own until morning), but I highly doubt it. ROGER D. ABRAHAMS (1933-2017) was the Hum Rosen Professor of Folklore and Folklife at the University of Pennsylvania, president of the American Folklore Society, and the author of many books, monographs, and articles on African American, Creole, Caribbean, and American culture. |
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28 Jan 26 - 07:32 PM (#4235082) Subject: RE: Origins: The Ring on my Finger Is Johnny Give Me From: Robert B. Waltz Joe Offer wrote: I'm guessing it was a Georgia Sea Island song. I can't find any source that mentions the song, so I'm not much help. But Roger Abrahams wrote a book on music in the West Indies (Deep the Water, Shallow the Shore: Three Essays on Shantying in the West Indies). So that would be another likely place to pick it up. |
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28 Jan 26 - 08:21 PM (#4235083) Subject: RE: Origins: The Ring on my Finger Is Johnny Give Me From: Mick Pearce (MCP) A quick look says it's not in Deep The Water, Shallow The Shore. Mick |
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28 Jan 26 - 08:32 PM (#4235084) Subject: RE: Origins: The Ring on my Finger Is Johnny Give Me From: Robert B. Waltz Mick Pearce wrote: A quick look says it's not in Deep The Water, Shallow The Shore. I know, or I'd have found it and cited the song. :-) I'm just saying that Abrahams had been involved in West Indian music. He did not, as far as I know, write anything about the Georgia Sea Islands. |
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29 Jan 26 - 04:16 AM (#4235093) Subject: RE: Origins: The Ring on my Finger Is Johnny Give Me From: Mick Pearce (MCP) Sorry! Misinterpreted your last sentence. Mick |
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29 Jan 26 - 04:50 AM (#4235094) Subject: RE: Origins: The Ring on my Finger Is Johnny Give Me From: Reinhard A Google search for "Johnny alone until morning" points me to Roger Abrahams’ workshop 1964 UCLA Folk Festival: Lecture Demonstration: African American Life in Song from the West Indies. |
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29 Jan 26 - 05:42 AM (#4235099) Subject: RE: Origins: The Ring on my Finger Is Johnny Give Me From: Reinhard He gives this as an example of songs sung on Nevis in "team meetings" at 44:00 minutes. The hat on my head it is Johnny give me. (×4) Johnny alone until morning. The shoes on my feet they are Johnny give me. (×4) Johnny alone until morning. Johnny say that he loved me, but I do not believe. (×4) Johnny alone until morning. |
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29 Jan 26 - 05:45 AM (#4235100) Subject: RE: Origins: The Ring on my Finger Is Johnny Give Me From: Reinhard Ah, the transcription until then listed it as "team meetings", but at 48:36 it says "The reason why this is called tea is, the tea meeting, is that they serve tea. Now, tea down there is not the Chinese kind of stuff that we generally think of as tea. Tea is any hot drink. And generally what they mean by tea is what we think of as cocoa. And when everybody gets thirsty enough, they all begin to clap their hands and they sing." |
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29 Jan 26 - 06:00 AM (#4235101) Subject: RE: Origins: The Ring on my Finger Is Johnny Give Me From: Robert B. Waltz Having looked at all these versions, an observation here (in case anyone else is as slow as I was to figure this out it): We are probably punctuating this wrong. Take Joe's first verse. It should probably be: The ring on my finger is. Johnny give me. The ring on my finger is. Johnny give me. The ring on my finger is. Johnny give me. Johnny alone until morning. That is, the verses should be understood as "The ring is on my finger. Johnny gave it to me." Not "The ring on my finger is [called] 'Johnny give me.'" According to a quick Google search, Nevis Creole has a tendency to reorder words in a way atypical of English. In this case, it appears they're using subject-object-verb word order rather than the usual English subject-verb-object. |