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Charming Betsy/She Gets There Just The Same/ Goin' Round the Mountain
Bluegrass and Old-Time song and fiddle tune;
DATE: Circa 1880 First recording Fiddlin' John Carson 1925.
ARTIST: Source: Mr. and Mrs. Stankewitz at Visalia FSA Camp 1941
Listen: Mr. and Mrs Stankewitz; Charming Betsy 1941; Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940-1941
OTHER NAMES: Rockhouse Gambler; She Gets There Just The Same; Gambling Blues; Rock House Gamblers
RECORDING INFO: Acuff, Roy. Steamboat Whistle Blues (1936-39), Rounder SS023, LP (1985), trk# 9 [1936/10] Fink, Cathy;, Duck Donald and Peter Paul Van Camp. I'm Gonna Tell, Likeable 02, LP (1980), trk# 13 Georgia Organ Grinders. Work Don't Bother Me: Old Time Songs from North Georgia, Rounder 1035, LP (1986), trk# B.04 [1929/04/10] Jenkins, Snuffy; and Pappy Sherrill. Snuffy Jenkins. Pioneer of the Bluegrass Banjo, Arhoolie 9027, CD (1998/1962), trk# 6 Ledford, Lily May. Banjo Pickin' Girl, Greenhays GR 712, LP (1983), trk# B.09 Limeliters. Sing Out!, RCA (Victor) LPM-2445, LP (1962), trk# B.01 Norris, Land. Mountain Banjo, Songs and Tunes, County 515, LP (1968), trk# A.02 [1925/04] Painter, Fred. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume III, Humorous & Play-Party ..., Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p186/#436 [1941/09/27] Putnam String County Band. Home Grown, Rounder 3003, LP (1973), trk# 12 Sexton, Lee "Boy". Whoa Mule, June Appal JA 051, LP (1987), trk# 1 Stanley, Ralph. Banjo Newsletter, BNL, Ser (1973-), 1984/11,p22 Tenenbaum, Molly. And the Hillsides Are All Covered with Cakes, Cat Hair, Cas (1994), trk# 4 Thomas, Henry (Ragtime Texas Henry). Texas Worried Blues, Yazoo 1080/1, LP (1989), trk# 20
NOTES: "Charming Betsy" is very old and an excellent example of a song shared by both black and white traditions. For a discussion of it in the white tradition see chapter 8 of Gene Wiggins 'Fiddlin' Georgia Crazy: Fiddlin' John Carson, His Real World and the World of His Songs' and, for the black tradition, chapter 3 of Paul Oliver 'Songsters & Saints'.
Louise Rand Bascom, in an essay in the Journal of American Folklore Apr-June 1909, dated the song back into the 19th century. There is a possible link with a civil war song about a Castle Thunder, a provost prison in Virginia. In the white tradition, the song has links with songs like 'Coming Round the Mountain', 'She Came Rolling Down the Mountain' and '[Come on Down the Mountain]Katy Daley'. What Wiggins describes as the 'descending hierarchy' - rich gal, poor gal, my gal - with the tag, 'but she [does something] just the same' is paralleled with 'white girl, yellow girl, black girl' and 'yellow girl, brown girl, black girl' and, in some folksongs 'June bug, lightning bug and bedbug'.
CHARMING BETSY- Published in 1909 Bascom
1. I'm comin' round the mountain, charmin' Betsy,
I'm comin' round the mountain, *'fore I leave.
An' if I never more see you,
Take this ring, an' think of me.
2. An' wear this ring I give to you,
An' wear it on your right han',
An' when I'm dead an' forgotten,
Don't give it to no other man.
*mishearing of Cora Lee
Early recordings were made in the 20s by white artists such as Fiddlin' John Carson, Land Norris and the Georgia Organ Grinders and by black artists such as Jim Jackson and Henry Thomas. In his 'Conversation with the Blues', Oliver says that it was one of the first songs ever learned by Gus Cannon, but he did not record it until much later. In the Brown Collection, there are two versions of 'White Gal, Yaller Girl, Black Gal' in which the final stanza about 'charming Betsy' is classified by the editor as 'intrusive'. The last 2 stanzas of one of these, collected in 1914 go:
Oh, a yaller gal, she wears a hobble skirt
Brown gal, she does the same
Black gal wears a old Mary Jane
But it's a hobble just the same
Oh, coming round the mountain, charming Betsy
Coming round the mountain, Cora Lee
If I die before I wake
Do, gals, remember me
[Wiggins p169]
Billy referred above to its popularity among jug bands, but it has turned up in almost every style of music. For example, you can find it in rockabilly. My favourite there is a thumping garage version by a very young Terry Clements and the Tune-Tones for Jay Miller in Louisiana under the title of 'She's My Baby Doll'. You can find that on 'The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions Vol 18: The Girl in the Tight Blue Jeans'.
Wiggins' discussion of the song is quite extensive. Of particular interest is his comment that, in his research, it is the only version he unearthed that seems to have no comic intent. In the second stanza, 'she's' in lines 2 and 4 are John's pronunciation for 'she was'. A printed version of the song, collected in 1909, escapes the 'problem' of having 2 women by substituting ''fore I leave', but practically all versions provide a 'Cora Lee'. The warning against 'marrying a railroad man' probably relates to a time in the mountains when rivalry existed between railroad men and local boys, particularly for women's favours. I like Wiggins' comment about 'ball and chain', a line that is common in folksong: 'It makes a good strong line for a stanza. Anyone who finds a ball and chain on him or her has experienced what students of Aristotle call "reversal of fortune"'. The following is also of interest:
That Betsy may have acquired the ball and chain for running illegal whisky is suggested by John's saying she was 'running' on the train where we should expect him to say she was 'riding' on it. T.S. McCamy, writing from Dalton, Georgia, in 1914, said the song was composed by a moonshiner whose still was discovered by the revenuers. Betsy stood off the officers until he got away, but she was captured. The 'heartless and ungrateful lover', according to McCamy, was making light of Betsy in the song. John could have known such a story, but I am sure he did not see the song as expressing any such attitude. [Wiggins p 168]
Part of the verse form and melody of "Charming Betsy" is found in the minstrel song, "Do Come along, Ole Sandy Boy," "Negro Singers' Own Book," 1846(?), p. 309, and another minstrel song, "Uncle Gabriel" (see Newman I. White, 1928, "American Negro Folk Songs," p. 234 and 316-317).
"Charming Betsy" itself seems to have been a fragment of a separate song, joined as a chorus to the minstrel song.
The first minstrel forms concerned animals:
Mr. Coon he is a mighty man,
He carries a bushy tail,
He steals old massa's corn at night,
And husks it on a rail.
De mink he is a mighty thing,
He rambles in de dark;
The only ting disturbs his peace
Is my old bull dog's bark.
(Negro Singers' Own Book, p. 309, 1846.
In "Christy's Nigga Songster," 1850, verses about Blacks were added, e. g.,
Nigga's hair am berry short,
White man's hair am longer,
White folks dey smell berry strong,
But niggas they smell stonger.
White reported verses from "Negro actors in a small show," Auburn, Al, c. 1915:
Well a white lady wears a hobble skirt,
A yaller gal tries to do the same,
But a poor black gal wears a Mary Jane,
But she's hobbling just the same.
(see post by Stewie, above)
Well a white lady sleeps in a feather bed,
A yaller gal tries to do the same,
But a poor black gal makes a pallet on de floor,
But she's sleeping just the same.
(see post by Michael Morris, above)
"Charming Betsy" may be an entirely different song that has been added to the minstrel verses posted here; related more to "Comin' Round the Mountain.".
In 1908, Louise Rand Bascom, JAFL Vol. 21, No. 84, p. 246, quoted this fragment:
CHARMING BETSY
1.
I'm comin' round the mountain, Charmin' Betsy,
I'm comin' round the mountain, 'fore I leave,
An' if I never more see you,
Take this ring, an' think of me.
2.
An' wear this ring I give you,
An' wear it on your right han',
An' when I'm dead an' forgotten,
Don't give it to no other man.
This song also appears in Brown, North Carolina Folklore, as "All Round the Mountain" or "Charming Betsy."
It's all 'round the mountain, charming Betsy,
It's all 'round the mountain, Cora Lee;
And if I never more see you,
Dear love, remember me.
(verse with music in Brown, vol. 5, "The Music of the Folk Songs," ed. J. P. Schinhan, pp. 180-181.
Johnny Carson or other recorded singer may have married the lyrics of the two songs.
The two are joined in Vance Randolph, "Ozark Folksongs," vol. 3, no 436, p. 185-186:
Chorus:
She'll be comin' round the mountain, charmin' Betsy,
She'll be comin' round the mountain, Cora Lee,
Oh if I never see you any more
Just look at my ring an' think of me.
1.
A rich man lives in a big brick house,
A poor man does the same,
I live down in the old county jail,
Lord, a brick house just the same!
2.
A rich girl drives a big limmerseen,
A poor girl does the same,
My girl drives a model-T Ford,
Lord, she's ridin' just the same!
Sung by Mr. Fred Painter, Galena, MO, 1941. "The first stanza is used as a chorus, being repeated after each of the other verses."
CHARMING BETSY- Voices From the Dust Bowl; Charming Betsy performed by Mr. and Mrs. Stankewitz at Visalia FSA Camp, 1941/08/14. "Learned from the radio," according to notes at Voices From the Dust Bowl
CHARMING BETSY- Listen: Mr. and Mrs Stankewitz; Charming Betsy 1941; Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940-1941
Rich gal rides in a big limousine
Poor gal she does the same
My gal she rides in a T-model ford
But she's ridin' just the same.
CHORUS: She'll be coming round the mountain, charmin' Betsy
She'll be coming round the mountain, Cora Lee
If I never get to see you again
Good Lord, remember me.
Rich gal sleeps on a big feather bed
Poor gal she does the same
My gal she sleeps on a pallet on the floor
But she's snoozin' just the same.
She'll be coming round the mountain, charmin' Betsy
She'll be coming round the mountain, Cora Lee
If I never get to see you again
Good Lord, remember me.
Rich man lives in a big brick house
Poor man he does the same
I live way down in the county jail
It's a brick house just the same.
She'll be coming round the mountain, charmin' Betsy
She'll be coming round the mountain, Cora Lee
If I never get to see you again
Good Lord, remember me.
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