| "Blue Tail Fly" ("Jimmy Crack Corn") |
|
| Written | 1840s |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Form | strophic with chorus |
| Recorded by | Burl Ives |
"Blue Tail Fly", "De Blue Tail Fly", or "Jimmy Crack Corn" is thought to be a blackface minstrel song, first performed in the United States in the 1840s that remains a popular children's song today.
Over the years, many variants of text have appeared, but the basic narrative remains intact. On the surface, the song is a black slave's lament over his master's death. The song, however, has a subtext of rejoicing over that death, and possibly having caused it by deliberate negligence.[1] Most versions at least nod to idiomatic African English, though sanitized, Standard English versions predominate today.
The blue-tail fly mentioned in the song is probably Tabanus atratus, a species of horse-fly found in the American South.[2][3][4] As it feeds on the blood of animals such as horses and cattle, as well as humans, it constitutes a prevalent pest in agricultural regions. This species of horse-fly has a blue-black abdomen, hence the name.[3]
Contents |
In one early version, the idyllic (yet ironic) scene is set thus:
In the two verses that follow, the singer is told to protect his master's horse from the bite of the blue-tail fly:
The horse bucks and the master is killed. The slave then escapes culpability:
The reference to a "jury" and a "verdic[t]" does not imply that the slave was charged with any crime. Some sources indicate this may have referred to a coroner's inquest or police investigation; however, these "slang" terms were not used outside the context of a court proceeding at the time.
The modern chorus is as follows:
Jimmy cracked corn, and I don't care Jimmy cracked corn, and I don't care Jimmy cracked corn, and I don't care My trouble's gone away
Differing sources date "Jimmy Crack Corn" from 1844[5] or 1846[6] and differ as to who authored it. One early printing attributed it to Dan Emmett.[7] However, at the time it was usual for the recorder of a folk song to take credit. It is also thought that it was not originally a blackface minstrel song, but rather of genuine African American origins.[8] Unlike many minstrel songs, "Blue Tail Fly" was long popular among African Americans and was recorded by Big Bill Broonzy, among others. A celebrated live version was recorded by Burl Ives.[9] Folk singer Pete Seeger also made the song popular. Ives and Seeger performed the song together at the 92nd Street Y in New York City in 1993, in what turned out to be Ives' last public performance.[10]
There has been much debate over the meaning of "Jimmy Crack Corn". In the original version the lyrics read "jim crack corn". "Jim crack" or "gimcrack" means shoddily built.[11] Additionally, "corn" is considered an American euphemism for "corn whiskey". Other possibilities include:
Most etymologists support the first interpretation, as the term "cracker" appears to predate "corn-cracking". Also, "whipcracker" has no historical backing.[14] This suggests that, in the chorus, the slaves may be making whiskey and celebrating.
It is also said that Pete Seeger once maintained that the true lyrics were "gimmie cracked corn; I don't care",[15] referencing a punishment in which a slave's rations were reduced to cracked corn and nothing else. In this case, the author would seem to have decided that this severe punishment would be worth the outcome: the death of the master.
Another interpretation is that "jimmy" was slang for a crow and that the phrase refers to crows being allowed feed in the cornfields. Normally it would have been a boy slave's responsibility to keep crows out of the corn.
The minstrel song from the same era (1840) "Jim Along, Josey" by Edward Harper may be used as a reference. In it "Jim Along" was probably the equivalent of the phrase "Get a-long", which Harper employs in the chorus of this song "Hey, get a-long, get a-long, Josey".
Abraham Lincoln was an admirer of the tune, calling it "that buzzing song". It is likely he played it on his harmonica[16] and it is said that he asked for it to be played at Gettysburg.[17]
An instrumental version of the song, entitled "Beatnik Fly", was released by Johnny and the Hurricanes in 1960.
Eminem has a song off his Shady Records compilation album, Eminem Presents The Re-Up called "Jimmy Crack Corn," which features his labelmate 50 Cent. It was the second single off the album.
The Toy Dolls have recorded a cover of the song as Olga Crack Corn on their album Fat Bob's Feet.
Actress Vanessa Redgrave sings "Jimmy Cracked Corn"/"Blue Tail Fly" in one of the opening scenes to the Merchant-Ivory film of Edward Albee's adaptation of Carson McCullers' The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. It is used in direct juxtaposition to the spiritual "In the Garden", underscoring Miss Amelia's non-religious concerns (as compared to the near-mysticism of the local preacher, played by Rod Steiger).
Bugs Bunny sang it, albeit in his well-known New York accent, in the Warner Bros. cartoon short Lumber Jack-Rabbit.
When performing their version of the song on the album The Two Sides of the Smothers Brothers, Tom Smothers continually sings, "I don't care, and I don't care...", and when Dick Smothers tells him those aren't the lyrics, Tom replies, "I don't care."
Bender sings a version of the song in the Futurama episode "Bendin' in The Wind" in which he replaces Jimmy with Fry, Leela, and Bender.
Turk sang it, imitating Neil Diamond in Scrubs, Season 2 Episode 8.
In the Bizarro comic strip featured in newspapers, a sheriff takes a child whose jersey reads "Jimmy" to a man's doorway. He tells the man, "I caught this little rascal crackin' your corn again." The man, holding a banjo, says, "How many times I gotta tell you, sheriff? I DON'T CARE!"
The song raised some controversy when a small part of it was used in a December, 2006 Cingular Wireless commercial. A person holding a phone conversation was talking to someone (unseen) named "Jim" and was referring to him by every variant of "Jim" that he could think of ("Jimbo", "Jimmy boy", "Jimmy crack corn..."). The sequence was edited out because of several complaints. Cingular stated that, although it only received a "half dozen complaints", it did not want to offend anybody who may have thought that the commercial was inappropriate.[18]
Tom Lehrer's satirical "The Folk Song Army" states:
A mondegreen on the refrain: "Gimme that corn and I don't care, the master's throwing it away."
Allan Sherman included a parody version of the song as the first entry in "Shticks and Stones" on his album "My Son, the Folk Singer":
The Fiery Furnaces use this song in their song "Duffer St. George" ("Duffer St. George and I don't care")
On the improv comedy show 'Whose Line is it Anyway' Wayne Brady declares "I'm here to report Jimmy is no longer cracking corn and I do care." during a game of 'scenes from a hat' where the suggestion was trivial reasons to hold a news conference.
The E and J Gallo Winery used the tune as the basis for a commercial jingle in the 1960s, replacing the "Jimmy crack corn and I don't care, my master's gone away" line with 'Gallo makes wine with loving care, especially for you".