Cotton-Eyed Joe
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "about". Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Template:Main other
"Cotton-Eyed Joe" (also known as "Cotton-Eye Joe") (Roud 942) is a traditional American country folk song popular at various times throughout the United States and Canada. It has historical associations with slavery in the American South. The song is also an instrumental banjo and bluegrass fiddle standard.
"Cotton-Eyed Joe" has inspired more than one country-western partner dance and line dance. The 1980 film Urban Cowboy included a version of the song. In 1985, the Moody Brothers' version of the song received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Country Instrumental Performance. The Irish group the Chieftains received a Grammy nomination for Best Country Vocal Collaboration for their version of the song with lead vocals by Ricky Skaggs on their 1992 album Another Country. In 1994, a version recorded by the Swedish Eurodance group Rednex as "Cotton Eye Joe" became popular worldwide.
History
19th century
The origins of this song are unclear, although it predates the 1861–1865 American Civil War.[1] American folklorist Dorothy Scarborough (1878–1935) noted in her 1925 book On the Trail of Negro Folk-songs that several people remembered hearing the song before the war. Scarborough's account of the song came from her sister, Mrs. George Scarborough, who learned the song from "the Negroes on a plantation in Texas, and other parts from a man in Louisiana". The man in Louisiana knew the song from his earliest childhood and heard slaves singing it on plantations.[2] Both the dance and the song had many variants.[3]
The melody of the song may have originated in Ireland. Paddy Moloney of The Chieftains was on tour in Texas when he heard the song and immediately identified it as an old Irish folk melody, "The Mountain Top".[4]
A number of possible meanings of the term "cotton-eyed" have been proposed. The phrase may refer to: being drunk on moonshine, or having been blinded by drinking wood alcohol, turning the eyes milky white; a black person with very light blue eyes; miners covered in dirt with the exception of their white eyes; someone whose eyes were milky white from bacterial infections of trachoma or syphilis, cataracts or glaucoma; or the contrast of dark skin tone around white eyeballs in black people.[5]
American publishing house Harper and Brothers published the first printed version of the song in 1882.[6] It was heard by author Louise Clarke Pyrnelle (born 1850) on the Alabama plantation of her father when she was a child.[7] That 1882 version was republished as follows in 1910:[8]
The lyrics of this version, in nondialectal standard American English are:
By 1884, the fiddle-based song was referred to as "an old, familiar air".[9] In 1925, another version was recorded by folklorist Dorothy Scarborough and published.[10]
Scarborough noted that the song seemed to be well known in the South prior to the Civil War, and parts of it had been sent in by various persons.[10]
Over the years, many different versions of the song have been performed and/or recorded with many different versions of the lyrics (and many without lyrics). "Cotton-Eyed Joe", on occasion referred to as "The South Texas National Anthem", was played for minstrel-type jigs, and it has long been popular as a square dance hoedown and a couple dance polka.[11]
A resident of Central Texas who learned the dance in Williamson County in the early 1880s described it as nothing but a heel and toe "poker" with fringes added. These fringes added to the heel and toe polka were clog steps which required skill and extraversion on the part of the dancer.[12]
20th century
During the first half of the 20th century, the song was a widely known folk song all over English-speaking North America. One discography lists 134 recorded versions released since 1950.[13] In more recent decades, the song has waned in popularity in most regions except some parts of the American South, where it is still a popular folk song.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
Bob Wills and Adolph Hofner and his San Antonians both recorded the song, and according to music historian Bill C. Malone, Hofner's 1941 version was the one that did the most to popularize the song.[14] A 1967 instrumental version of the song by Al Dean inspired a new round dance polka for couples.[11]
The dance remained popular in Texas in the 1970s.[15] A circle dance called "Cotton-Eyed Joe" can be found in the 1975 edition of Encyclopedia of Social Dance. The men stand on the inside of a circle facing out, and the women stand on the outside facing in; both circles follow a sequence of kick steps and struts.[16]
See also
References
External links
- "Cotton-Eyed Joe" in The Mudcat Cafe's Digital Tradition Folk Music Database
- Grateful Dead Family Discography of recordings of "Cotton Eye Joe"
- Samples from the Skillet Lickers and RedNex versions
- Cotton-Eyed Joe at Roud Folk Song Index
- ↑ Everett, Holly: "The Many Lives of 'Cotton Eyed JoeTemplate:'", Canadian Society for Traditional Music Conference, 2002, Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Lloyd Shaw, The Round Dance Book, The Caxton Printers, Ltd, 1948, p. 314. No ISBN or catalogue number.
- ↑ McWhiney, Grady (1988), Cracker Culture: Celtic Ways in the Old South, Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. p.120. Template:Isbn
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ a b Dance Across Texas Betty Casey, University of Texas Press, 1985, p. 17. Template:ISBN
- ↑ Harris, Pittman, Waller, Dance a While. Handbook of Folk, Square, and Social Dancing. 1950, 1955, 1964, 1968. Burgess Publishing Company, Fourth Edition, p. 151.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Bill C. Malone, Don't Get above Your Raisin′, University of Illinois Press, 2001, p. 313. Template:ISBN
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Albert and Josephine Bulter, Encyclopedia of Social Dance, New York: Albert Bulter Ballroom Dance Service. New York, New York, 1975.