Jimmy Randall- Clarence Webb (NJ) 1936 Halpert D
[Fragment from: Some Ballads and Folk Songs from New Jersey by Herbert Halpert; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 52, No. 203 (Jan.- Mar., 1939), pp. 52-69. His notes follow.
Cf. Halpert versions A, B, C.
R. Matteson 2016]
SHOOTING OF HIS DEAR
I have secured several variants of this interesting ballad. The two texts I include in full are obviously closely parallel. They show the amount of minor variation possible to the same song in a limited area. The melody and its variant come from members of the same family and exhibit a similar tendency in a more restricted sphere. For other versions and references see Sharp-Karpeles I, No. 50; add Hudson, Folksongs of Mississippi, No. 32; Scarborough, A Song Catcher in Southern Mountains, p. 117; BFSSNE No. 10, p. 12 (see also for an interesting discussion of the swan-fawn motifs.).
JIMMY RANDALL- Recited by Clarence Webb of Brown's Mills, N. J., July 30, 1936 and several times thereafter. In reciting this he says "swan" but always changes it to "squaw". He gives as an explanation of the song the fact that pioneers were wont to go out and shoot Indian women with no compunction. This is an amusing example of an intellectual re-creation of the text of a folk song.
1. Jimmy Randall went a-hunting with his dog and his gun,
He met Molly Bannon and he shot her for a squaw[1].
1. also swan; literally: swan, squaw.