"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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Visitor comments are welcome.

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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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Visitor comments are welcome.

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The REAL History Of The Song "Pick A Bale Of Cotton"

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post is provides a time line with citations and comments about the song "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" (PABOC) up to 1950. Lyrics for some examples of that song are also given in this post. A number of comments are given in Addendum #1 to this post below. Addendum #2 features three additonal videos of "Pick A Bale Of Cotton".

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

All copyrights remain with their owners.

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EDITOR'S COMMENT
"Pick A Bale Of Cotton" (PABOC) is a song of African American origin whose lyrics have become quite controversial since at least the last part of the 20th century.

Hyperlinks to some online discussions about the controversial nature of "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" [since at least the late 20th century] are provided in this post. However, unlike most online blogs & articles about "Pick A Bale Of Cotton", this post focuses on the history of that song, with particular attention to documentation of pre-Lead Belly citations & performances of this song.

Additions & corrections and family friendly* comments are very welcome.

*By "family friendly" I mean no profanity, no fully spelled out "n-word", no racist comments or political comments/arguments, and no sexually explicit language. All of those types of comments are routinely found in YouTube comment threads and in most online sites that focus on "Pick A Bale Of Cotton". Although none of that content is included on this page-I'm including a WARNING that such content may be found on online sources whose hyperlinks are provided in this post.

As per the policy of this blog, no profanity is found in this post, and what is commonly referred to as "the n word" is represented by "n___r" with an asterisk which indicates that the completely spelled out word is found in the source text.

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"PICK A BALE OF COTTON" SONG TIME LINE
No documentation of the song "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" has been found prior to the 1930s.

December 1933 - "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" recorded by James 'Iron Head] Baker, a prisoner at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_%22Iron_Head%22_Baker_and_Moses_%22Clear_Rock%22_Platt

**
1934 - Verses of "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" are included in American Ballads and Folk Songs, edited by John Avery Lomax
From http://books.google.com/books?id=Dn0cSe2ecuoC&pg=PA231&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false [Google Books], pp. 231-233
My comment:
In that book John Lomax wrote that "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" was "a Negro work song that was sung in prison by “Clear Rock" [Moses Platt], who Lomax described as "a 70 year old 'water boy'” at Central State Farm, near Sugarland, Texas” [state farm = prison]. Lomax wrote that the song survived the Civil War and slavery as per its references to “massa”. [Read the comments in the Addendum below about Lomax's speculation that "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" was a Black American slavery work song.]

In that book, John Lomax includes two verses for PABOC:
"Dat n___r* from Shiloh kin pick a bale of cotton" etc.

and

"O massa told de n___rs*
Pick a bale of cotton
O massa told de n___rs*
Pick a bale a day"

**
1936 - John and Alan Lomax write about "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" in their book "Negro Folk Songs as Sung by Leadbelly," Macmillan Company, 1936, page 92:
"In other versions of this song (see same title in "American Ballads and Folksongs") such lines as "Ol' massa tol' de n___rs*, Pick a bale o' cotton," and "Massa gimme one dram to Pick a bale o' cotton," are frequent. We are led to believe, [my italics] therefore, that "Pick a Bale o' Cotton" is a slave song, another of the old Negro tunes the Texas prison system has kept alive, while the prisoners died... The tune...is well known, especially among older prisoners, throughout the Texas penitentiary system."
-snip-
This is an excerpt of a comment that was posted by Guest, Autoharper [Adam Miller] on http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=90399
"Origins: Pick a Bale of Cotton" [hereafter given as Mudcat: Origins PABOC; 18 Apr 13 - 08:31 AM
*This word is fully spelled out in this book.

**
1939 - John & Alan Lomax record James 'Ironhead' Baker (and Moses 'Clear Rocks' Platt?) singing "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" [Rounder Records]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_%22Iron_Head%22_Baker_and_Moses_%22Clear_Rock%22_Platt
"James "Iron Head" Baker and Moses "Clear Rock" Platt were African American traditional folk singers imprisoned in the Central State Prison Farm in Sugar Land, Texas. They are notable for a number of field recordings of work songs and other material made by John Lomax for the Library of Congress Archive of American Folk Music in the 1930s."
-snip-
The first entry in the Addendum below includes an excerpt from a book Prison Writing in 20th-century America edited by Howard Bruce Franklin that comments about picking cotton in Texas prison farms and also includes a brief version of a pre-Leadbelly version of "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" that is sung as a lament by Texas inmates.

**
From Mudcat: Origins PABOC, posted by Q 14 Nov 05 - 08:16 PM
"...Just listened to the Rev. Mose Platt sing this perky little work song on the Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip (American Memory, Library of Congress). He used the phrase "jump down turn around, pick a bale a day.

The version is quite different from the one ascribed to 'Clear Rock' (Platt) in Lomax, ABFS 1934 [recorded in December 1933?], which has the Shiloh verse, but not the 'jump around' phrase. I can't find a recording listed for Platt before 1939. Platt could have changed his lyrics, or those in Lomax could be a 'combined' version put together by Lomax- which has happened before. His recording of the song in his "Deep River of Song" collection lists an "unknown axe-cutting group" as singing the song."
-snip-
My assumption is that Rev. Mose Platt & Moses 'Clear Rocks' Platt are the same person.

**
Between 1941 and 1947 - Lead Belly recorded "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" for Folkways Records [now Smithsonian Folkways Recordings]. SFW40044_102 http://www.folkways.si.edu/TrackDetails.aspx?itemid=34149

One of the recordings was "Lead Belly Sings for Children"
Lead Belly SFW45047"
From http://www.folkways.si.edu/lead-belly-sings-for-children/african-american-music-folk-blues/album/smithsonian
"Originally recorded in children's concerts and studios for Moses Asch and Folkways Records in the 1940s".

**
1945 - Lead Belly performs "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" live [Folklore Research film, edited by Pete Seeger]

Leadbelly Pick A Bale Of Cotton '45Z



cornelius627, Uploaded on Feb 24, 2012
-snip-
The song that Lead Belly hums in the beginning of this film is "In The Pines", a song that is different from "Pick A Bale Of Cotton". PABOC begins at 1:23 in this film clip.

Lead Belly's comments prefacing that song:
"And this is another work song. When we pick cotton, you got to jump down to pick a bale of cotton a day. You can't fool around. And we sing:

Lyrics:
Great God almighty
Gonna pick a bale of cotton
Great God almighty
Gonna pick a bale a day.

Chorus:
Ah Lawd, I can pick a bale of cotton.
Ah Lawd, I can pick a bale a day.
Ah Lawd, I can pick a bale of cotton.
Ah Lawd, I can pick a bale a day.
Ah Lawd, I can pick a bale of cotton.
Ah Lawd, I can pick a bale a day.

Oh, me and my wife, can pick a bale of cotton etc.

Chorus

Gotta jump down, turn around and pick a bale of cotton etc.

Chorus

Me and my buddy can pick a bale of cotton etc.

Chorus

Me and my papa can pick a bale of cotton etc.

Chorus

Me and my sister can pick a bale of cotton etc.

I can pick a bale, pick a bale of cotton etc.

Chorus

I'm gonna jump down, turn around, pick a bale of cotton etc.
-snip-
Read various comments -including mine - about Lead Belly's performance of "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" in the Addendum below.

****
ADDENDUM
From Prison Writing in 20th-century America edited by Howard Bruce Franklin, Penguin, 1998 [Google Book], p. 29-30
"Chapter: Songs Of The Prison Plantation
"The work songs of African American convicts constitute the most poignant evidence of the continuity from Pre-Civil War chattel slavery to the twentieth century prison. The songs have served much the same function for modern prison slaves as the work songs of their slave ancestors. They pace collective labor such as picking cotton under the boiling sun on prison plantations, precisely time dangerous joint activities like chopping down trees, and provide an assertion of people’s creativity and a defense of their humanity. The songs thus made it possible to survive under the most brutal and degrading condition, conditions designed to reduce them to work animals.

Some of the old slave songs actually persisted well into the second half of the 20th century. For example, these lines were sung by modern convicts picking cotton on a Texas prison plantation:

Well old marster told old mistress I could pick a bale of cotton
Well old marster told old mistress I could pick a bale a day.
You big enough and black enough to pick a bale of cotton.
You big enough and black enough to pick a bale a day.
Chorus

But never will I pick a bale of cotton
How in the world will I pick a bale a day."
-snip-
From http://www.cotton.org/edu/faq/
"How much does a bale of cotton weigh?

A bale of cotton weighs about 500 pounds."

**
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_Belly : for information about, including the fact that "In 1930 Ledbetter [Huddie William Ledbetter (January 20, 1888 – December 6, 1949)] was in Louisiana's Angola Prison Farm after a summary trial for attempted homicide, charged with knifing a white man in a fight. It was there he was "discovered" three years later during a visit by folklorists John Lomax and his then 18-year-old son Alan Lomax.[12] Deeply impressed by Ledbetter's vibrant tenor and extensive repertoire, the Lomaxes recorded him on portable aluminum disc recording equipment for the Library of Congress. They returned with new and better equipment in July of the following year (1934), recording hundreds of his songs all in all. On August 1, Ledbetter was released after having again served almost all of his minimum sentence following a petition the Lomaxes had taken to Louisiana Governor Oscar K. Allen at his urgent request. It was on the other side of a recording of his signature song, "Goodnight Irene."
-snip-
I'm including this information although there's no documentation that "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" was among the "hundreds of songs" that the Lomaxes recorded of Lead Belly in 1934 while he was in Louisiana's Angola State Farm. [as per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_Belly]

Notice that in "Negro Folk Songs As Sung By Leadbelly" [which is quoted above], the Lomaxes write that "Pick a Bale o' Cotton" is a slave song, another of the old Negro tunes the Texas prison system has kept alive"...
-snip-
Italics added by me to highlight that portion of the sentence.

It seems likely that Lead Belly picked up "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" from "Iron Head" Baker & "Clear Rocks" Platt and transformed that song into the uptempo, dance song [sookie jump/play party tempo] that is almost always heard for that song today. In that sense, Lead Belly is the arranger and not the composer/writer of "Pick A Bale Of Cotton".

Furthermore, it's also likely that at least many of Lead Belly's Black audiences who heard his comments prefacing his performances of "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" and his version of that song were aware that he was "lying" [telling tall tales, boasting, funnin'] when he said that he [and others] "picked a bale of cotton [in] a day. Those Black audiences, and others familiar with picking cotton knew that it wasn't humanly possible to pick a bale of cotton in one day.

Part of the problem was "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" nowadays is that many people don't understand the "lyin" tradition that Lead Belly is reflecting. African American writer/folklorist Zora Neale Hurston wrote about that same lying tradition in her book Mules To Men. The fact that "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" that was standarized and popularized by Lead Belly is a bragging song escapes most people since the 20th century because we're not familiar with those bragging/"lying" customs.

**
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e4qwOQzmnc
Excerpt of the video summary statement published by raymondcrooke
"Pick a Bale of Cotton (Traditional American)", Uploaded on Mar 12, 2011
"First collected by Alan Lomax from prison farms in Texas, this is a boastful song about picking an impossibly large quantity of cotton (a bale is about a quarter of a ton). One version (1934) sung by Moses Clear Rock Platt, an African-American singer (and prisoner) has led to some controversy as it used the word "n____r"*. In fact, many people now consider it politically incorrect to sing this song at all because of its associations with slavery. There is a fascinating thread on the Mudcat site about a school that was pressured into withdrawing the song from a choral concert after complaints from parents. **

Pete Seeger has argued that it would have been sung fairly slowly as a work song if it was actually sung by the slaves on the cotton fields, so it is quite likely that it does not actually go back to those times. The version that we know today comes mainly from the singing of Lead Belly, who called it a "play-party" song, and has been carried on by singers such as Harry Belafonte, Odetta and the great blues duo, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee."

**Click http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=86330
"Where is thy sting?-'Pick a Bale of Cotton' Ban" [hereafter given as "Mudcat: Sting PABOC" for this Mudcat discussion. Full disclosure, I participated in that discussion as well as the Mudcat discussion on the origin of "Pick A Bale Of Cotton".

**
Mudcat: Sting PABOC", posted by Q, 14 Nov 05 - 02:05 PM
"First collected from prison farms in Texas, a boastful song about picking an impossibly large quantity of cotton (it has never been done). The version with the lines about the "n___r* from Shiloh" was sung by Moses Clear Rock Platt, African-American singer, story teller and sometime prisoner on prison farms in Texas. His material was first recorded by Lomax (printed in Lomax and Lomax, 1934, "American Ballads and Folk Songs," pp. 231-233).

Pete Seeger picked it up, and along with the printed version in Silber, "Folksinger's Wordbook," p. 123 (with chords), it became a standard among folk singers."...
-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out.

**
From "Mudcat: Sting PABOC", posted by Q, 14 Nov 05 - 09:33 PM
..."It ["Pick A Bale Of Cotton"] may never have been used by cotton-pickers. "Pick a Bale" has not been found in any collection before the 1930s, it may well have been just a handy line, much as 'pick a peck of pickles' in the kid's tongue-twister. The rhythm is wrong for picking cotton."

**
Editor's comment:
It appears that John Lomax considered the inclusion of the word "massa" in 'Iron Head' Baker's and 'Clear Rocks' Platts' version of "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" to be enough evidence to support his assertion that "PABOC" was sung by Black people during slavery while they were picking cotton or at other times. However, no folklorist has found documentation of "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" being sung during United States slavery. I wonder if Iron Head Baker & Clear Rocks Platt used the word "massa" in their rendition of "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" to veil the fact that they were actually referring to their prison overseers when they used the word "massa" or "master and "mistress".
[I used italic font to highlight this sentence.]

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From http://www.allmusic.com/song/pick-a-bale-of-cotton-mt0011917299 Song Review by Barry Weber
..."Ledbetter took old folk ballads and reworked them into songs that would prove to pave the way for not only folk and blues, but for rock and roll as well. One of the greatest examples of this is "Pick a Bale of Cotton," an old work song that will forever be known as a Leadbelly tune. Though the original is most remembered as a working man's lament, Ledbetter transformed "Pick a Bale of Cotton" into a fast-paced, out-and-out dance number obviously influenced by his youthful "sookie jump" days. And while the early anonymous recordings of this song sadly reflect, "Never will I/pick a bale-a-day," Leadbelly's lyrics boast "I jump down, turn around, pick a bale of cotton/I jump down, turn around, pick a bale a day." Never mind that picking a bale of cotton in one day is unthinkable--the fact is Leadbelly took a song of hopeless anguish and turned it into a song of fantasy, of proving the impossible possible. This was a message that proved to resonate with the working class--particularly the southern blacks--and "Pick a Bale of Cotton" is a testament to Leadbelly's talent for completely transforming an old song in both performance and message. It is easy to listen to the unrestrained ecstasy in Ledbetter's performance and realize just why so many people refer to this song, despite it's [sic] traditional roots, as a Leadbelly original."
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Italics added to highlight these sentences.

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ADDENDUM #2: Three Additional Videos of "Pick A Bale Of Cotton"

WARNING: Comments in some of these videos' viewer comment threads contain profanity, the n word fully spelled out, racist language, and other inappropriate content.

Example #1: Lonnie Donegan - Pick a Bale of Cotton (video by 41)



NormanSweetcream, Uploaded on Sep 23, 2008

I made a music video for a great song. I hope you enjoy it.

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Example #2: The Jerk 'end credits'



Dan Rychlec, Uploaded on Aug 12, 2011

The closing credits for "The Jerk". Always loved this version of "Pick a Bale of Cotton" by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee but couldn't it find anywhere... but here. Its low quality cause I don't know what I'm doin'. Feel free to improve it.
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I think that this movie scene greatly contributed to the toxicity of the song "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" in that this scene seemed to seemed to make fun of poor Black people. Furthermore, the use of that song seemed to confirm the opinion many Black people have held since at least the late 20th century that the uptempo, joyous nature of the "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" disrespects and trivalizes the memory of Black enslaved people who worked in cotton fields under horrendous conditions.

The fact that "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" was probably not a real 19th century work song - as no documentation of that song can be found until the 1930s - and the fact that Lead Belly transformed the earlier lament to its uptempo danceable form is important to note, but doesn't really change the negative perceptions that many people, particularly many Black people, have about this song. Of course, one of the reasons for this is that few people are aware of the real history of the song "Pick A Bale Of Cotton".

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Example #3: Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee-Pick a Bale of Cotton



TravelerIntoTheBlue,·Published on Sep 15, 2013
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Notice that the beginning spoken words to this version of "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" mention "working in the chain gang". Refereences to prison chain gangs are repeated throughout this song. This is pertinent since the earliest examples of "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" are from two African Americans inmates from a Texas prison - "Iron Head" Baker and "Clean Rocks" Platt. However, the version of that song that is performed by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee isn't the lament/veiled protest of those prisoners, but the "sookie jump" influenced uptempo, bragging song that Lead Belly has made the standard form for "Pick A Bale Of Cotton".

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RELATED LINK
In addition to the links given above, click this link for a discussion about the controversy about "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" being sung by children in American schools http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/03/03/191309/-Racist-song-in-my-kid-s-music-class.

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Thanks to all those singers and collectors of "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" who are mentioned in this post. Thanks also to all those who I have quoted in this post and thanks to the vocalists featured in videos embedded in this post, as well as the producers of those videos.

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