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ROCKING MY SUGAR LUMP/ WHO'S BEEN ROCKING MY SUGAR LUMP/Bile Dem Cabbage Down
Old-Time, Breakdown.
ARTIST: Lowe Stokes
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: 1800's; 1930 recording; The 1902 Journal of American Folk-lore: Folklore-Page 193; (1909 reference)
RECORDING INFO: Lowe Stokes 1930; Sugar Lump [Me II-A29] Document DOCD8045, Lowe Stokes in Chronological Order, vol. 1: 1927-1930 (1999 reissue).
RELATED TO: Bile Dem Cabbage Down; Turn That Cinnamon
OTHER NAMES: Sugar Lump; “Who’s Been Rocking My Sugar Lump?”
SOURCES: Kuntz; Botkin, Benjamin / A Treasury of American Folklore, Crown, Bk (1944), p810
Surber, Elsie. Morris, Alton C. / Folksongs of Florida, Univ. Florida, Bk (1950), p220/#131 [1934-39]
NOTES: According to the 1902 Journal of American Folk-lore: Page 193: "Sugar lump" is apparently an equivalent for sweetheart. Here are the lyrics from Louise Prynelle from Florida:
That lady's a-rockin' her sugar lump,
That lady's a-rockin' her sugar lump,
That lady's a-rockin' her sugar lump,
Oh! Turn, cinnamon, turn.
The JOAFL calls this an English play-party song to a tune similar to the Virginia reel. In my opinion "Turn cinnamon" is a miss-hearing or mondegreen of "Turn sinners."
According to Kuntz, "Rockin' my Sugar Lump" is Lowe Stokes’ variation of the old standard “Boil The(m) Cabbage Down,” recorded in 1930 with his band The Swamp Rooters, which included Bert Layne on fiddle and Arthur Tanner on banjo, among others. A 1952 recording in the John Quincy Wolf Folklore Collection at Lyon College, Batesville, Arkansas, of the singing of W.P. Detherow (Batesville, Arkansas) reveals that a play-party song called “Ladies Rocking” is also based on the “Bile Them Cabbage” tune. Stoke was probably familiar with fellow Skillet Licker Clayton McMichen's hit with "Boil Them Cabbage Down." McMichen claimed ownership of the song, unaware that it was published in 1882.
The song as "A Sweet Sugar-Lump" is found in the 1909 book, "Triangulating Peace" By Bruce M. Russett, John R. O' Neal:
That gentlemen is rockin' his sugar lump,
That gentlemen is rockin' his sugar lump,
That gentlemen is rockin' his sugar lump,
Turn sinners, turn.
The song has evolved into Turn Cinnamon, a children's play-party song:
Turn Cinnamon
That lady's a-rockin' her sugar lump,
That lady's a-rockin' her sugar lump,
That lady's a-rockin' her sugar lump,
Turn, cinnamon, turn.
The songs usually include the lyrics (see Stokes first verse below):
All up and down, my honey,
All up and down we go,
All up and down, my honey,
All up and down we go.
Lyrics to "Rocking My Sugar Lump":
All around this ring, my sweet sugar lump,
All around this ring we go.
All around this ring, my sweet sugar lump,
All around this ring we go.
Ladies rocking, my sugar lump,
Oh, ladies rocking, my sugar lump.
Ladies rocking, my sugar lump,
Oh, turn back, sinners, turn.
Rock a little faster, my sugar lump,
Oh, rock a little faster, my sugar lump,
Rock a little faster, my sugar lump,
Oh, turn back, sinners, turn.
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