"Gon' Knock John Booker To The Low Ground" (children's game song) comments, lyrics, & examples)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post provides information about the African American game song "Gon' [Gonna] Knock John Booker" (To The Low Ground).

The content of this post is provided for folkloric, historical, and cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the composers and singers of "Gon' Knock John Booker". Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post, and thanks to the publisher of this video on YouTube.

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COMMENTS, LYRICS, AND DANCE INSTRUCTIONS FOR "GON' KNOCK JOHN BOOKER TO THE LOW GROUND"
From http://www.loc.gov/folklife/LP/AFS_L4_sm.pdf The Library Of Congress. Music Division; Archive of American Folklore
"The slave children played ring games, many of the tunes for which were adaptations of white game songs and country tunes. Three of these ring games follow; [titles "Rosey", ""Gon' Knock John Booker To The Low Ground", and Run [N word*] Run"

*This word is fully spelled ouot.

GON KNOCK JOHN BOOKER TO THE LOW GROUND
Gon knock John Booker to the low ground
Tu-da darlln' day.
Gon knock John Booker to the low ground
Tu-da darlln' day.
That lady bow to beat you.
Tu-da darlln' day.
That lady bow to beat you.
Tu-da darlln' day.
That gentleman bow to beat you
Tu-da darlln' day.
That gentleman bow to beat you

Tu-da darlln' day.

Chorus:
Hey-ay-ay,
Hey-ay-ay,
Hello, my lover
Keep a- g-wine on
Hello, my lover
Keep a-runnin on
Hello, my lover
Keep a- gwine
That ole mule buck
That ole mule buck
Keep a- gwine
Kicked the saddle off
That ole mule buck
Keep a- gwine
[The next lines repeat what has gone on before]
-snip-
This song was included in a section on Black American slave children's singing games. The song was sung by Harriet McClintock.

My explanations of some of the words in this song:
"Gon'" = gonna

"knock" = I believe that the word "knock" as used in this song (and as it is used in another African American children's plantation game "Knock Jim Crow") means "to dance" (and probably "to dance very well"; I believe that this use of "knock" is very much like the phrase "He knocked it out of the park (or out of the box") to refer to somebody doing something-other than playing baseball very well.

Visit http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/09/knock-jim-crow-real-origin-of-dance.html for additional comments that I wrote about what I think is the probable meaning of the word "knock" that is used in this song.

"the low ground" - a lower level of ground; Notice the similarity of that phrase to the line "knock Jim Crow to the new ground" in the plantation game song "Knock Jim Crow".

"John Booker" - a name that was used in a number of plantation dance songs (with titles such as "Jonny Boker", "Old Johnny Booker", "Mister Booger" "What Johnny Booker Wouldn't Do"). Visit http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-old-time-song-johnny-booker.html

My guess is that the singing game "Gon' Knock John Booker To The Low Ground" was adapted from those "Johnny Booker" dance songs/shanties, probably also with the adapted title and "low ground" line from the singing game "Knock Jim Crow".

"gwine" = going. The letter "a" is pronounced "ah" and is a commonly found vocal sound that has no meaning

"That ole mule buck"- the old mule bucked "leap[ed] with arched back and come down with head low and forelegs stiff, in order to dislodge a rider or pack" http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bucked

I wonder if the children who sung the line about the mule bucking performed the "bucking" movement that still lives on in the [new style] Black majorette dance routines. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/07/eight-dd4l-dancing-dolls-of-jackson.html for a pancocojams post that shows examples of "bucking". Note that "bucking" isn't the same as the tap dance movement of "buck & wing".

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SHOWCASE SOUND FILE
Molly McDonald- Gon' Knock John Booker to the Low Ground

.

Nico Fournier Published on May 10, 2014

Afro-American Blues and Game Songs
-nip-
In response to a query [from the person recording this song] Molly McDonald shared that this game was played in the yard and in the house too.

There are no comments yet on this sound file's discussion thread.

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"Knock Jim Crow" - The REAL Origin Of The Dance Song "Jump Jim Crow"

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post provides information about the African American game song "Knock Jim Crow" and the minstrel song & dance "Jump Jim Crow" that was adapted from it.

The content of this post is provided for folkloric, historical, and cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the composers and performers of "Knock Jim Crow" and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.

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COMMENTS, LYRICS, AND DANCE INSTRUCTIONS FOR "KNOCK JIM CROW"
From Step It Dowm: Games, Plays, Songs & Stories from the Afro-American Heritage by Bessie Jones and Bess Lomax Hawes (The University of Georgia Press, 1972), pp. 55-57
Bessie Jones: “When I was a little girl, I thought Jim Crow might have been a bird, because it was “going down to the new ground”, and they always shoot them birds out of the corn. “New ground” is ground where the trees have been cut off, but it’s never been planted in. So that was what I understood at the time, that was my idea. But we don’t know what the old folks meant, we sure don’t.”

John Davis: “ I don’t believe that the old folks knew what they were talking about their ownselves. Anyway they didn’t tell nobody”...

“Jim Crow” developed from a dance imitating the motions of birds and hunters, and quite possibly magical in nature, into a commercial caricature. No wonder the term, when used in a political context, has a bitter taste today. The Islanders, however, clearly regard this as a pleasurable dance, probably about birds, and “knock Jim Crow” with enthusiasm and alacrity.

FORM: Indefinite; group of children standing in a line of ring. There may be a lead singer or the children may all sing together.

Lead and Group Voice
Where you going, buzzard?
Where you going, crow?
I’m going down to the new ground
To knock Jim Crow
Up to my kneecap
Down to my toe,

And every time I jump up
I knock Jim Crow.
(Speed increases)
I knock.
I knock Jim Crow.
I knock.
I knock Jim Crow.
I knock, knock,
I knoc Jim Crown.
(repeat ad lib).

Action
Step on the right foot, raise left leg with knee straight (like a high goose step)
and clap hands together around it; repeat raising alternate legs until
On to, raise right knee (bent) and slap it with right hand.
On cap raise left knee (bent), and slap it with left hands.
On to point down to ground with right index finger.
On beat after “toe” point down to ground with left index finger.
Resume raising alternate legs and clapping around them as in first step.

Dancers increase speed, continuing to lift legs and clap while turning round in place until exhaustion sets in.

Be sure that the steps are on the downbeat, so that the claps can come on the offbeat.
where you go-ing buz-zard, where you go-ing crow?
step clap step clap step clap step clap
-snip-
My comment:
I believe that the word "knock" as used in the song "Knock Jim Crow" (and as it is used in another African American children's plantation game "Gon' Knock John Booker") means "to dance" (and probably "to dance very well"; I believe that this use of "knock" is very much like the phrase "He knocked it out of the park (or out of the box") to refer to somebody doing something-other than playing baseball very well.

This slang use of "knock" in those old Southern USA plantation songs reminds me of the Hip-Hop (Rap) dance songs that began with the phrase "Crank dat" ("Crank that"). The first song in that category is entitled "Crank That (Soulja Boy") by the rapper known as Soulja Boy (2007). "Crank That" (also given as "crank dat") means "to do that particular dance very well". The word "crank" used that way suggests starting up a movement similar to how the old record players had to be cranked to begin playing music.)

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Google Books: Carrion Dreams 2.0: The Hagetaka-tan Version
By Benjamin Joel Wilkinson; pp. 374-375
...”[Thomas] Rice developed his [Jump Jim Crow] routine from an already extant song and dance tradition among southern blacks known as “Knock Jim Crow” which consisted in part of imitating the movement of birds. Whether the birds that were imitated were the genuine Jim crow-vultures- or the common American Crows, or both, it is impossible to say for certain.

The trademark movements of a vulture might seem like an odd inspiration for a popular dance routine, but we’ve already seen the Amerindians across the hemisphere employed just such inspiration for their ritual dances. Additionally, there was at least one other traditional [Black American] slave dance that was also popularized by a white minstrel, dubbed the “Buzzard Lope” which had much the same imitative origin as “Jump Jim Crow”. A dictionary published in 1890 defined Buzzard Lope as “the latest social institution in America….a dance taught to a Georgian negro by the turkey buzzard. Unlike Jump Jim Crow, this dance survived in one form or another into the 20th century; in Ben Burman’s 1938 book Blow For A Landing is found a description of the “buzzard dance” in which the dance would “wheel in long, doleful circles. His arms became gaunt, flapping wings; his head swung jerkily from his cadaverous neck, peering, searching.” Similar, if not identical dances were found by anthropologists studying the customs of African Americans living along the Georgia coast; and as late as 1958 there’s a description of an old man demonstrating “a kind of buck- and- wing dance dubbed the “Buzzard Flop”. Despite its vulturine origins, “Jump Jim Crow” proved to be a smash hit for Rice, who soon began to bill himself as “Jim Crow” Rice, and by the mid 1830s “Jim Crow” had entered the common parlance of white Americans, initially as a derogatory attachment. For example, editorial comment in a newspaper might call a disliked politician’s behavior a “Jim Crow” performance.

Along those same lines, abolitionist newspapers of the 1840s applied that term to railroad cars that separated their passengers by the color of their skin, in hopes of generating the appropriate amount of outrage about such bigoted arrangements. The name stuck so well that, during the post Civil War era, Jim Crow was used as a catchphrase description for the system of institutional segregation that was practiced in the American South until the 1960s. All and all vultures seem to have had a remarkable amount of influence upon African American dance culture, for good or ill.”...
-snip-
"Black American" in brackets is my addition to this passage to clarify which enslaved people the writer is referring to (since historically there were other enslaved people besides Black people and Black Americans.]

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INFORMATION ABOUT "JUMP JIM CROW"
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jump_Jim_Crow
"Jump Jim Crow" is a song and dance from 1828 that was done in blackface by white comedian Thomas Dartmouth (T.D.) "Daddy" Rice. The number was supposedly inspired by the song and dance of a crippled African slave named Jim Cuff or Jim Crow, who is variously claimed to have resided in St. Louis, Cincinnati, or Pittsburgh.[1][2] The song became a great 19th century hit and Rice performed all over the country as "Daddy Jim Crow".
"Jump Jim Crow" was a key initial step in a tradition of popular music in the United States that was based on the imitation of Blacks. The first song sheet edition appeared in the early 1830s, published by E. Riley. A couple of decades would see the mockery genre explode in popularity with the rise of the minstrel show. It was also the initial step in the extant tradition in popular music of incorporating African styles and subject matter.
The tune became very well known not only in the United States but internationally; in 1841 the US ambassador to Central America, John Lloyd Stephens, wrote that upon his arrival in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico, the local brass band played "Jump Jim Crow" under the mistaken impression that it was the US national anthem.”...
=snip-
[excerpt from that song's original lyrics]

"kneel to de buzzard, an, I bow to the crow;
An eb'ry time I weel about I jump jis so.

Other verses, quoted in non-dialect standard English,
Come, listen, all you girls and boys, I'm just from Tuckahoe;
I'm going to sing a little song, My name's Jim Crow.
Chorus: Wheel about, and turn about, and do just so;
Every time I wheel about, I jump Jim Crow."
-snip-
Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALTam2L9NhE for "A recreation of the Jump Jim Crow refrain the way it was performed by Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice (1808-60). This clip is so short I repeated it three times so you can get a good look. This is the only clip I've ever found that shows a performer singing and dancing the actual tune. This clip is from a Vitaphone." (Video published by ikachina Published on Jan 26, 2013).

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RELATED LINKS
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/09/john-crow-part-i-what-john-crow-means.html for Part I of a pancocojam post on the Caribbean term "John Crow".

A pancocojam post on the African American children's game "Gon' Knock John Booker" (To The Low Ground) will be published ASAP.

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Videos Of "Great Big House In New Orleans" (Play Party Song)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post presents showcases three YouTube videos of the play party song "Great Big House In New Orleans" (also known as "Great Big House"). General information about play party songs and lyrics & performance directions for this song are also included in this post. My comments about the reasons why I advocate using racial identifiers for folk songs that have African American sources is included in this post along with my comments about two other songs that I believe are related to "Great Big House In New Orleans".

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the performers of this song, thanks to all those who are quoted in this post, and thanks to the publishers of these examples on YouTube.

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INFORMATION ABOUT PLAY PARTY SONGS
"Play party songs" is a reference for 19th century American group movement songs that took the place of dancing at social events since dancing was prohibited in those communities. Those movement songs had no instrumental music and touching another person while playing those "singing games" was greatly regimented.

Online articles about play party songs routinely refer to the European sources of those songs and routinely omit any acknowledgement that a number of play party songs are of African American origin or have had African American influence. For example, the album notes to "American Play Parties" by Pete Seeger, Mika Seeger, and Rev. Larry Eisenberg FW07604 provides this description of play party songs:
"To evade the religious prohibition against dancing in certain American communities, young people in the 19th century devised an ingenious solution—they adapted children’s games, which were permitted. The result was so-called play parties. Participants sang creative songs to cue movements, and the events were great “mixers.” The only element lacking was instrumental music."
http://www.folkways.si.edu/TrackDetails.aspx?itemid=19300

The author of that album's notes cites "Anglo-American" as the cultural group that is the source of the play party songs which are found on that album. However, I believe that at least three songs of the fourteen songs that are included on that album are of African American origin: "Shake Them 'Simmons Down", "Goodbye Liza Jane", and "Great Big House in New Orleans". Some of the other songs on that album may also be of African American origin or those versions of the song may have been African American influenced. Yet no one reading those album notes would know that.

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WHY I BELIEVE THAT PLAY PARTY SONGS THAT HAVE AFRICAN AMERICAN SOURCES SHOULD BE IDENTIFIED AS AFRICAN AMERICAN AS WELL AS AMERICAN PLAY PARTY SONGS*
I strongly believe that it's important to acknowledge that African Americans also contributed to America's play party repertoire for the sake of historical documentation, and for psychological reasons. Providing the information that some American folk songs are of African American origin helps build and reinforce group esteem in a population that is still being maligned and a population that is still experiencing the effects and consequences of personal racism and of institutional racism.

People may think that they are being "color-blind" by not mentioning race (when they are teaching children folk songs and at other times). However, by not mentioning race they are actually reinforcing the viewpoint that only White people are responsible for accomplishments. This is because both online and offline "White" is the default race (just as "male" is the default gender). When no race is mentioned for an individual (unless the discussion is about some criminal act or something that is stereotypically considered to be the purview of a particular race/ethnicity), people automatically assume that that person is White (just as people automatically assume that people posting online are male).

Regardless of their race or ethnicity, children shouldn't be led to believe that White people were the only composers of play party songs or other folk songs.

*This comment also applies to other American folk songs.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/02/african-american-sources-of-various.html for a pancocojams post on this subject.

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LYRICS AND PERFORMANCE INSTRUCTIONS: "GREAT BIG HOUSE IN BALTIMORE"
1. Great big house in New Orleans,
Forty stories high;
Ev'ry room that I been in,
Filled with chicken pie.

2. Went down to the old mill stream,
To fetch a pail of water;
Put one arm around my wife,
The other 'round my daughter.

3. Fare thee well, my darling girl,
Fare thee well, my daughter;
Fare thee well, my darling girl,
With the golden slippers on her.

Movements:
1. First verse: students form a circle, holding hands, walk keeping a steady beat, then stop.
2. Went down to the old mill stream,
(every other student moves to the center, holding hands with arms below waist)
To fetch a pail of water;
(outside circle moves behind inner circle, placing arms over the shoulders of the inner circle and holds hands)
Put one arm around my wife,
(keeping hands held, outside circle raises arms to ceiling, bringing them down behind the back of the inner circle)
The other 'round my daughter.
(keeping hands held, inner circle rises arms to ceiling, bringing them down behind the backs of the outer circle)
3. Third verse: keeping arms around the outer circle, the whole circle walks to a steady beat.

Source: http://musicnotes.net/SONGS/04-GREATB.html

Origin: USA - Louisiana Play Song
-snip-
Other performance instructions are given with the videos below.

Unlike the song "Li'l Liza Jane" ("Little Liza Jane") and many other folk songs, with one interesting exception*, all the lyrics to online versions of "Great Big House In New Orleans" are the same. I'm not sure if this is because each of these websites used the same source or not. I would be very surprised to learn that there weren't any variant forms of this song when it was a naturally occurring part of children's and youth's social play and not as it is taught to students in school as is done nowadays.

*The exception to the lyrics is the substitution of "pumpkin pie" for "chicken pie", giving the lyrics "Ev'ry room that I been in/Filled with chicken pie."

The "chicken pie"** lyric is important because although chicken is a basic part of a meal and not a dessert, among 19th century African Americans, chicken was considered a luxury. And during slavery, when chicken was available, it was served as a pie and not fried as is stereotypically attributed to Black Americans. (Read http://www.cocojams.com/content/food-beverages-mentioned-thomas-w-talley%E2%80%99s-negro-folk-rhymes "Food And Beverages Mentioned In Thomas W. Talley's Negro Folk Rhymes").

As such, the reference in the song "Great Big House In New Orleans" to the each room of a forty story high house being filled with chicken pie is a grandiose image that reflects more than the singer's desire for comfort and good living. To long for chicken pie is important since the singer might have experienced a number of days without adequate food. Chicken pie would have satisfied the singer's hunger much more than a dessert, particularly one he or she might not have been that familiar with.

The change in lyrics from "chicken pie to pumpkin pie" might also have cultural implications as it appears from online discussions (and my experience) that even nowadays pumpkin pie isn't a dessert that African Americans are familiar with, preferring the somewhat similar dessert of sweet potato pie - a dessert which many White Americans apparently aren't that familiar with.

**Nowadays, "chicken pie" is most commonly known in the United States as "chicken pot pie".

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-cultural-regional-racial.html for a post about the cultural, regional, and racial associations of sweet potato pie.

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FEATURED EXAMPLES
These examples are presented in chronological order based on their posting dates with the oldest dated examples given first.

Multiple versions of a song are presented not to rank which one is best, but to showcase some of the different interpretations artists have given of this song.

Example #1:Great Big House In New Orleans



Anthony Meehl, Published on Oct 9, 2012

3rd Grade students singing and dancing to "Great Big House In New Orleans"

Anthony Meehl, 2014
1st vs [verse]
march to beat around circle

2nd vs
#1's march to middle and join hands (went down to the old mill stream)
#2's march to middle and join hands over the top of #1's. (to fetch a pail of water)
#2's bring hands over the top (put one arm around my wife)
#1's bring hands over the top (the other round my daughter)

3rd vs
keep hands joined and slide feet to the beat around the circle. Hope this helps :)

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Example #2: Great Big House In New Orleans



HelenIn Harmony, Published on Sep 9, 2013

Midwest Play-Party Singing Dance

Filmed November, 2010 - 3rd Grade

Great Big House in New Orleans
Forty stories high
Ev'ry room that I've been in
Filled with pumpkin pie.

Went down to the old mill stream
To fetch a pail of water
Put one arm around my wife
The other round my daughter

Fair thee well, my darling girl
Fair thee well, my daughter
Fair thee well, my darling girl...
With the golden slippers on her

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Example #3: MUSIC TEACHER RESOURCES - Great Big House



Kate Fellin, Published on Oct 18, 2013

TEACHING TIPS: Students stand in a circle alternating between boys and girls. (We used lanyards to differentiate between the groups, which also works). Boys go in four steps and back out; girls go in four steps and back out. Boys go in four and hold hands, then girls go in four steps and hold hands in front of boys. Girls raise arms over the boys' heads and put them behind their backs, then boys raise their arms and put them behind the girls' backs. The interlocked circle moves clockwise (to the left) for eight counts, then they raise their arms and step back to their original positions. For a more advanced version (that we did), the outer circle moves clockwise one window so that they are standing next to a new person for the dance. The words are "Great Big House in New Orleans/Forty stories high/Every room that I've been in/Filled with pumpkin pie./Went down to the old mill stream/To fetch a pail of water./Put one arm around my wife/The other round my daughter./Fare thee well, my darlin' girl/Fare thee well, my daughter/Fare thee well, my darlin' girl/With golden slippers on her."

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RELATED SONGS
The "house in New Orleans/forty stories high/filled with chicken pie" lines in the song "Great Big House In New Orleans" reminds me of the African American old time song "Riding In A Buggy Miss Mary Jane".

Sally got a house in Baltimo',
Baltimo', Baltimo'
Sally got a house in Baltimo'
And it's full of chicken pie.

I got a gal in Baltimo',
Baltimo', Baltimo'
I got a gal in Baltimo',
And she's sixteen stories high.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/12/riding-in-buggy-miss-mary-jane-video.html for a post about that song.

"Great Big House's" verses also could serve as floaters for versions of "Li'l Liza Jane".

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/02/five-examples-of-song-lyrics-for-lil.html for a post about that song.

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