[lit-ideas] Re: Jimmy Crack Corn
- From: "Andreas Ramos" <andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2006 09:02:05 -0700
From http://www.answers.com/topic/blue-tail-fly
One early version set the idyllic (yet ironic) scene thus:
When I was young A us'd to wait
On Massa and hand him de plate;
Pass down the bottle when he git dry,
And bresh away de blue tail fly.
refrain (repeated each verse):
Jim crack corn - I don't care,
Jim crack corn - I don't care,
Jim crack corn - I don't care,
Old Massa gone away.
Two further verses show the singer being told to protect his master's horse from the bite of
the blue-tail fly:
An' when he ride in de arternoon,
I foiler wid a hickory broom;
De poney being berry shy,
When bitten by de blue tail fly.
One day he rode aroun' de farm,
De flies so numerous dey did swarm;
One chance to bite 'im on the thigh,
De debble take dat blu tail fly.
The horse bucks and the master is killed. The slave then escapes culpability:
De poney run, he jump an' pitch,
An' tumble massa in de ditch;
He died, an' de jury wonder'd why
De verdic was de blue tail fly.
The reference to a "jury" and a "verdic[t]" does not indicate that the slave was charged
with any crime. It refers instead to a coroners jury into the death.
yrs,
andreas
www.andreas.com
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