Blue Tail Fly
Encyclopedia
- "Jimmy Crack Corn" redirects here. For the song by EminemEminemMarshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...
, see Jimmy Crack Corn (song)Jimmy Crack Corn (song)- Charts :- References :...
.
"Blue Tail Fly", "De Blue Tail Fly", or "Jimmy Crack Corn" is thought to be a blackface
Blackface
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...
minstrel
Minstrel show
The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface....
song, first performed in the United States in the 1840s that remains a popular children's song
Children's song
Children's song may be a nursery rhyme set to music, a song that young children invent and share among themselves, or a modern creation intended for entertainment, use in the home, or education...
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
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
's lament over his master's death. The song, however, has a subtext
Subtext
Subtext or undertone is content of a book, play, musical work, film, video game, or television series which is not announced explicitly by the characters but is implicit or becomes something understood by the observer of the work as the production unfolds. Subtext can also refer to the thoughts...
of rejoicing over that death, and possibly having caused it by deliberate negligence
Negligence
Negligence is a failure to exercise the care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in like circumstances. The area of tort law known as negligence involves harm caused by carelessness, not intentional harm.According to Jay M...
. Most versions at least nod to idiom
Idiom
Idiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made...
atic African English
African American Vernacular English
African American Vernacular English —also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular , or Black Vernacular English —is an African American variety of American 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
Horse-fly
Insects in the order Diptera, family Tabanidae, are commonly called horse flies. Often considered pests for the bites that many inflict, they are among the world's largest true flies. They are known to be extremely noisy during flight. They are also important pollinators of flowers, especially in...
found in the American South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
. As it feeds on the blood of animals such as horses and cattle, as well as humans, it constitutes a prevalent pest
Pest (animal)
A pest is an animal which is detrimental to humans or human concerns. It is a loosely defined term, often overlapping with the related terms vermin, weeds, parasites and pathogens...
in agricultural regions. This species of horse-fly has a blue-black abdomen
Abdomen
In vertebrates such as mammals the abdomen constitutes the part of the body between the thorax and pelvis. The region enclosed by the abdomen is termed the abdominal cavity...
, hence the name.
Lyrics
In one early version, the idyllic (yet ironic) scene is set thus:- When I was young I us'd to wait
- On the boss and hand him his plate;
- and Pass down the bottle when he got dry,
- And brush away the blue tail fly.
- refrain (repeated each verse):
- Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
- Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
- Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
- My master's gone away.
In the two verses that follow, the singer is told to protect his master's horse from the bite of the blue-tail fly:
- An' when he ride in de afternoon,
- I foiler wid a hickory broom;
- De poney being berry shy,
- When bitten by de blue tail fly.
- One day he rode aroun' de farm,
- De flies so numerous dey did swarm;
- One chanced to bite 'im on the thigh.
- De debble take dat blue tail fly.
The horse bucks and the master is killed. The slave then escapes culpability:
- De pony run, he jump an' pitch,
- An' tumble massa in de ditch;
- He died, an' de jury wonder'd why;
- De verdic was de blue tail fly.
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.
- They buried him 'neath the sycamore tree
- His epitaph there for to see
- "Beneath this stone I'm forced to lie
- The victim of a blue-tailed Fly."
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
History and interpretation
Differing sources date "Jimmy Crack Corn" from 1844 or 1846 and differ as to who authored it. One early printing attributed it to Dan EmmettDan Emmett
Daniel Decatur "Dan" Emmett was an American songwriter and entertainer, founder of the first troupe of the blackface minstrel tradition.-Biography:...
. 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. Unlike many minstrel songs, "Blue Tail Fly" was long popular among African Americans and was recorded by Big Bill Broonzy
Big Bill Broonzy
Big Bill Broonzy was a prolific American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s when he played country blues to mostly black audiences. Through the ‘30s and ‘40s he successfully navigated a transition in style to a more urban blues sound popular with white audiences...
, among others. A celebrated live version was recorded by Burl Ives
Burl Ives
Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives was an American actor, writer and folk music singer. As an actor, Ives's work included comedies, dramas, and voice work in theater, television, and motion pictures. Music critic John Rockwell said, "Ives's voice .....
. Folk singer Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
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.
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. Additionally, "corn" is considered an American euphemism for "corn whiskey
Corn whiskey
Corn whiskey is an American liquor made from a mash made of at least 80 percent corn.The whiskey is typically run off to high proof and cut to not less than 40 percent alcohol by volume. It does not have to be aged; but if so, it is aged in new uncharred oak barrels or in barrels previously used...
". Other possibilities include:
- – "Gimcrack corn," cheap corn whiskeyCorn whiskeyCorn whiskey is an American liquor made from a mash made of at least 80 percent corn.The whiskey is typically run off to high proof and cut to not less than 40 percent alcohol by volume. It does not have to be aged; but if so, it is aged in new uncharred oak barrels or in barrels previously used...
; - – That it refers to "cracking" open a jug of corn whiskey;
- – That "crack-corn" is related to the (still-current) slang "crackerCracker (pejorative)Cracker, sometimes white cracker, is a pejorative term for white people. It is an ethnic slur that is especially used for the white inhabitants of the U.S. states of Georgia and Florida , but it is also used throughout the United States.-Etymology:One theory holds that the term comes from the...
" for a rural Southern white. - – That "crack-corn" originated from the old English term "crack," meaning gossip, and that "cracking corn" was a traditional Shenandoah expression for "sitting around chitchatting."
- – That the chorus refers to an overseer who, without the master, has only his bullwhipBullwhipA bullwhip is a single-tailed whip, usually made of braided leather, which was originally used as a tool for working with livestock.Bullwhips are pastoral tools, traditionally used to control livestock in open country...
to keep the slaves in line.
Most etymologists support the first interpretation, as the term "cracker" appears to predate "corn-cracking". Also, "whipcracker" has no historical backing. This suggests that, in the chorus, the slaves may be making whiskey and celebrating.
It is also said that Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
once maintained that the true lyrics were "gimmie cracked corn; I don't care", 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".
- Hey, get a-long, Jim a-long, Jo!
- Hey, get a-long, get a-long Josey,
- Hey, get a-long, Jim a-long Jo!
Uses in popular culture
Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
was an admirer of the tune, calling it "that buzzing song". It is likely he played it on his harmonica and it is said that he asked for it to be played at Gettysburg.
An instrumental version of the song, entitled "Beatnik Fly", was released by Johnny and the Hurricanes
Johnny and the Hurricanes
Johnny and the Hurricanes was a rock and roll band that began as The Orbits in Toledo, Ohio in 1957. Led by saxophonist Johnny Paris , they were school friends who played on a few recordings behind Mack Vickery, a local rockabilly singer.-Career:They signed with Harry Balk and Irving Micahnik of...
in 1960.
Eminem
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...
has a song off his Shady Records
Shady Records
Shady Records is an American record label specializing in hip hop music. Eminem and his manager Paul Rosenberg founded the label in 1999 after the release of The Slim Shady LP.Since the formation, the label has signed nine acts...
compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
, Eminem Presents The Re-Up called "Jimmy Crack Corn
Jimmy Crack Corn (song)
- Charts :- References :...
," which features his labelmate 50 Cent
50 Cent
Curtis James Jackson III , better known by his stage name 50 Cent, is an American rapper, entrepreneur, investor, record producer, and actor. He rose to fame with the release of his albums Get Rich or Die Tryin and The Massacre . Get Rich or Die Tryin has been certified eight times platinum by...
. It was the second single off the album.
The Toy Dolls
Toy Dolls
The Toy Dolls are an English punk rock band formed in 1979. Departing from the angry lyrics and music often associated with punk rock, The Toy Dolls worked within the aesthetics of punk to express a sense of fun, with songs such as "Yul Brynner Was a Skinhead", "My Girlfriend's Dad's a Vicar" and...
have recorded a cover of the song as Olga Crack Corn on their album Fat Bob's Feet
Fat Bob's Feet
Fat Bob's Feet is a full-length album by the Punk band Toy Dolls. It is one of the more popular pieces recorded by the band and included such punk favourites as Bitten by a Bed Bug, The Sphinx Stinks and bonus single A-side Turtles Crazy! that wasn't included in original album tracklist...
.
Actress Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
sings "Jimmy Cracked Corn"/"Blue Tail Fly" in one of the opening scenes to the Merchant-Ivory
Merchant Ivory Productions
Merchant Ivory Productions is a film company founded in 1961 by producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory. Their films were for the most part produced by the former, directed by the latter, and scripted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, with the noted exception of a few films. The films were often...
film of Edward Albee
Edward Albee
Edward Franklin Albee III is an American playwright who is best known for The Zoo Story , The Sandbox , Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , and a rewrite of the screenplay for the unsuccessful musical version of Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's . His works are considered well-crafted, often...
's adaptation of Carson McCullers
Carson McCullers
Carson McCullers was an American writer. She wrote novels, short stories, and two plays, as well as essays and some poetry. Her first novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter explores the spiritual isolation of misfits and outcasts of the South...
' The Ballad of the Sad Cafe
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe
The Ballad of the Sad Café is a novel by Carson McCullers.-Plot:The Ballad of the Sad Café opens on the set of a small, isolated Southern town...
. 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
Rod Steiger
Rodney Stephen "Rod" Steiger was an Academy Award-winning American actor known for his performances in such films as On the Waterfront, The Big Knife, Oklahoma!, The Harder They Fall, Across the Bridge, The Pawnbroker, Doctor Zhivago, In the Heat of the Night, and Waterloo as well as the...
).
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
sang it, albeit in his well-known New York accent, in the Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
cartoon short Lumber Jack-Rabbit
Lumber Jack-Rabbit
Lumber Jack-Rabbit is a 1953 3D Looney Tunes animated short film directed by Chuck Jones and featuring Bugs Bunny. With a story by Michael Maltese, the short was released by Warner Bros. Pictures on September 25, 1953. It was notable as the first Warner Bros. cartoon short produced in 3-D. It...
.
When performing their version of the song on the album The Two Sides of the Smothers Brothers
The Two Sides of the Smothers Brothers
The Two Sides of the Smothers Brothers was the second comedy album by the Smothers Brothers. Side A consisted of comedy and was recorded at The Crystal Palace in St. Louis during a live performance...
, 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
Bender
- Places:* Bender, Moldova, also known as Bendery or Tighina* Bender, California, a former settlement in Fresno County, California* Bender Bayla District, a district of Bari, Somalia- Fiction :...
sings a version of the song in the Futurama
Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
episode "Bendin' in The Wind" in which he replaces Jimmy with Fry, Leela, and Bender.
- Fry cracked corn and I don't care
- Leela cracked corn I still don't care
- Bender cracked corn and he is great!
- Take that, you stupid corn!
Turk sang it, imitating Neil Diamond in Scrubs, Season 2 Episode 8.
In the Bizarro
Bizarro
Bizarro is a fictional character that appears in publications published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Otto Binder and artist George Papp as a "mirror image" of Superman and first appeared in Superboy #68...
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
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
, 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
Cingular Wireless
AT&T Mobility LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T that provides wireless services to 100.7 million subscribers in the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands...
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.
Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Thomas Andrew "Tom" Lehrer is an American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, mathematician and polymath. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater...
's satirical "The Folk Song Army" states:
- There are innocuous folk songs
- But we regard 'em with scorn
- The folks who sing 'em have no social conscience,
- Why, they don't even care if Jimmy crack corn
A mondegreen
Mondegreen
A mondegreen is the mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase as a result of near homophony, in a way that gives it a new meaning. It most commonly is applied to a line in a poem or a lyric in a song...
on the refrain: "Gimme that corn and I don't care, the master's throwing it away."
Allan Sherman
Allan Sherman
Allan Sherman was an American comedy writer and television producer who became famous as a song parodist in the early 1960s. His first album, My Son, the Folk Singer , became the fastest-selling record album up to that time...
included a parody version of the song as the first entry in "Shticks and Stones" on his album "My Son, the Folk Singer":
- Oh, salesmen come and salesmen go,
- And my best one has gone, I know;
- And if he don't come back to me,
- I'll have to close the factory!
- Gimme Jack Cohn, and I don't care,
- Gimme Jack Cohn, and I don't care;
- Gimme Jack Cohn, and I don't care,
- But the bastid's gone away
The Fiery Furnaces
The Fiery Furnaces
The Fiery Furnaces are a U.S. indie rock band formed in 2000 in Brooklyn, New York. The band's primary members are Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger. The siblings are originally from Oak Park, Illinois, a near-western suburb of Chicago.- Band biography :...
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
Jingle
A jingle is a short tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. The jingle contains one or more hooks and lyrics that explicitly promote the product being advertised, usually through the use of one or more advertising slogans. Ad buyers use jingles in radio and television...
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".