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Jaybird Died with the Whoopin’ Cough
Old-Time, Breakdown. USA; Tennessee, Virginia.
ARTIST: Hattie Gates of Jefferson, Texas- Learned at a Barn Dance
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: Mid 1800’s (1846)
RECORDING INFO: County 773, John Ashby and the Free State Ramblers - "Fiddling by the Hearth." Fretless 144, Double Decker String Band- "Giddyap Napoleon." Marimac 9008, The Lazy Aces - "Still Lazy After All These Years" (1986. Learned from John Ashby via Peter Honig). Ashby, John; and the Free State Ramblers. Fiddling by the Hearth, County 773, LP (1979), cut# 6.
OTHER NAMES: Jaybird Died of the Whooping Cough
FLOATING LYRICS: “Jaybird;” “Limber Jim;” “Bile Them Cabbage Down;” “Buck-eye Jim”
SOURCES: Wolfe states older printed sources include White (243), Brown (3:201), Browne (447), and an early Tennessee variant appears in the Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin 2, pg. 30. John Ashby (1915-1979, north Va.) via the Double Decker String Band (Kuntz); John Ashby [Phillips]. Kuntz (Ragged But Right), 1987; pg. 347-348. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 1, 1994; pg. 122.
NOTES: G Major. Standard. AABB. Charles Wolfe (1991) states that printed versions of this song/tune have been found as far back as 1846, and that it has been fairly widely collected from both black (See: Jaybird Died of the Whooping Cough- Version 2 and 3) and white sources.
The common verse to “Jaybird Died with the Whooping Cough” is also found in Lomax’s “Bile Them Cabbage Down:”
Jaybird died of the whoopin' cough,
Sparrow died of the colic.
'Long come a frog with a fiddle on his back
Inquirin' his way to the frolic.
Another song that has the “whooping cough” lyrics is “Limber Jim:” Way down yonder in a sycamore trough/ An old lady died with the whoopin'-cough.
Here are the lyrics from Texas Slave Stories:
De Jaybird died wid de whoopin cough,
De Sparrer died wid de colic,
Long cum a Red-bird skippin 'roun',
Sayin' 'Boys git ready fer de frolic,
De Jaybird died wid de whoopin' cough,
De Blue-bird died wid de measles,
Long cum a *man wid a fiddle on his back,
'Vitin crews ter dance wid de Weasles.
Dat Mockin'-bird he roam an' sing,
De ole Gray Goose cum prancin,
Dat Thrasher stuff his mouf' wid de plums,
Den he caper on ter dancin'.
Dey hopped hit high an' dey hopped hit low,
Dey hopped hit ter an' dey hopped hit by,
Dey hopped hit far an' dey hopped hit nigh,
Dat fiddle an bow, jes make 'em fly.
*Edited for racial content
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