Miss Lucy Long
Encyclopedia
"Miss Lucy Long", also known as "Lucy Long" and other variants, is an American song
that was popularized in the blackface
minstrel show
. A comic banjo
tune, the lyrics, written in exaggerated Black Vernacular English
, tell of the courtship
or marriage
of the male singer and the title character. The song is highly misogynistic
; the male character dominates Lucy and continues his sexually promiscuous lifestyle despite his relationship with her. "Miss Lucy Long" thus satirizes
black concepts of beauty and courtship and American views of marriage in general.
After its introduction to the stage by the Virginia Minstrels
in 1843
, "Miss Lucy Long" was adopted by rival troupes. George Christy
's cross-dressed
interpretation standardized the portrayal of the title character and made the song a hit in the United States
. "Miss Lucy Long" became the standard closing number for the minstrel show, where it was regularly expanded into a comic skit complete with dialogue. Versions were printed in more songsters and performed in more minstrel shows than any other popular song in the antebellum period. In blackface minstrelsy, the name Lucy came to signify any sexually promiscuous pervert.
Compare this later recorded version by Joe Ayers:
For nineteenth-century audiences, the comedy
of "Lucy Long" came from several different quarters. Eric Lott
argues that race is paramount. The lyrics are in an exaggerated form of Black Vernacular English
, and the degrading and racist
depictions of Lucy—often described as having "huge feet" or "corncob teeth"—make the male singer the butt of the joke for desiring someone whom white
audiences would find so unattractive. However, in many variants, Lucy is desirable—tall, with good teeth and "winning eyes". Musicologist William J. Mahar thus argues that, while the song does address race, its misogyny
is in fact more important. "Miss Lucy Long" is a "'public expressions of male resentment toward a spouse or lover who will not be subservient, a woman's indecision, and the real or imagined constraints placed on male behaviors by law, custom, and religion." The song reaffirms a man's supposed right to sexual freedom and satirizes
courtship
and marriage
. Still, the fact that the minstrel on stage would desire someone the audience knew to be another man was a source of comic dramatic irony.
The refrain
is simple:
However, its meaning is more difficult to identify and varies depending on the preceding verse. For example:
The verse makes Lucy out to be a "sexual aggressor who prefers 'tarrying' (casual sex, we may infer) to marrying . . . ." The singer for his part seems to be in agreement with the notion. Thus, Lucy is in some way in charge of their relationship. Of course, audiences could easily take "tarry" as either a sexual reference or an indication of a prim and reserved Lucy Long.
However, other verses put the power back in the male's hands. For example, this verse makes Lucy no better than a traded commodity:
In the Ayers version of the song, Miss Lucy and the male singer are already married. The lyrics further subvert Lucy's ability to control the sexual side of the relationship:
The singer later promises to "fly o'er de river, / To see Miss Sally King." He is the head of the relationship, and Lucy is powerless to stop him from engaging in an extramarital affair. Lucy's social freedom is limited to dancing the cachuca
and staying home to "rock the cradle".
"Miss Lucy Long and Her Answer", a version published in 1843
by the Charles H. Keith
company of Boston, Massachusetts, separates the song into four stanzas from the point of view of Lucy's lover and four from Lucy herself. She ultimately shuns "de gemman Dat wrote dat little song, Who dare to make so public De name ob Lucy Long" and claims to prefer "De 'stinguished Jimmy Crow
."
tune, and there is little melodic
variation between published versions. Nevertheless, the tune is well-suited to embellishment and improvisation. The verses and refrain
use almost identical music, which enabled troupes to vary the verse/chorus structure and to add play-like segments. A repeated couplet
binds the piece together and gives it a musical center around which these embellishments can occur.
Minstrels usually performed the song as part of a sketch in which one minstrel cross dressed
to play Lucy Long. The blackface
players dance
d and sang with regular interruptions of comic dialogue. The part of Lucy was probably not a speaking role and relied entirely on pantomime
.
For example, in 1846
, Dan Emmett
and Frank Brower
added these lines to a "Miss Lucy Long" sketch:
[Dialogue.]
FRANK She had a ticklar gagement to go to camp me[e]tin wid dis child.
DAN hah! You went down to de fish Market to daunce arter eels. mity cureous kind ob camp meetin dat!
FRANK I[t] wasn't eels, it was a big cat fish.
DAN What chune did you dance?
Chorus [both singing].
[Dialogue.]
FRANK I trade her off for bean soup.
DAN Well, you is hungryest nigger eber I saw. You'r neber satisfied widout your tinken bout bean soup all de time.
Chorus [both singing].
songster called Old American Songs. Billy Whitlock
of the Virginia Minstrels
later claimed the song in his autobiography: "I composed . . . 'Miss Lucy Long' (the words by T. G. Booth) in 1838
."
Despite predating the minstrel show, "Miss Lucy Long" gained its fame there. The song was the first wench
role in minstrelsy. The Virginia Minstrels
performed it as their closing number from their earliest performances. Dan Gardner introduced what would become the standard Lucy Long costume, skirts and pantalettes
. George Christy
's interpretation for the Christy Minstrels became the standard for other troupes to follow. The New York Clipper
ignored Gardner completely and wrote "George [Christy] was the first to do the wench business; he was the original Lucy Long."
By 1845
, the song had become the standard minstrel show closing number, and it remained so through the antebellum period. Programs regularly ended with the note that "The concert will conclude with the Boston Favorite Extravaganza of LUCY LONG." The name Lucy came to signify a woman who was "sexy, somewhat grotesque, and of suspect virtue" in minstrelsy. Similar songs appeared, including "Lucy Neal". In the late 1920s, a dance called the Sally Long
became popular; the name may derive from the minstrel song.
Musicologist Robert B. Winans found versions of "Miss Lucy Long" in 34% of minstrel show programs he examined from the 1843–52 period and in 55% from 1843–47, more than any other song. Mahar's research found that "Miss Lucy Long" is the second most frequent song in popular songsters from this period, behind only "Mary Blane
". The song enjoyed a resurgence in popularity from 1855–60, when minstrelsy entered a nostalgic
phase under some companies.
There is also reference to "Miss Lucy Long" in Bobby Darin
's version of the song "Mack the Knife
" by Berthold Brecht and Kurt Weill
, from their play "The Threepenny Opera
".
American popular music
American popular music had a profound effect on music across the world. The country has seen the rise of popular styles that have had a significant influence on global culture, including ragtime, blues, jazz, swing, rock, R&B, doo wop, gospel, soul, funk, heavy metal, punk, disco, house, techno,...
that was popularized in the 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 show
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....
. A comic 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...
tune, the lyrics, written in exaggerated Black Vernacular 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...
, tell of the courtship
Courtship
Courtship is the period in a couple's relationship which precedes their engagement and marriage, or establishment of an agreed relationship of a more enduring kind. In courtship, a couple get to know each other and decide if there will be an engagement or other such agreement...
or marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
of the male singer and the title character. The song is highly misogynistic
Misogyny
Misogyny is the hatred or dislike of women or girls. Philogyny, meaning fondness, love or admiration towards women, is the antonym of misogyny. The term misandry is the term for men that is parallel to misogyny...
; the male character dominates Lucy and continues his sexually promiscuous lifestyle despite his relationship with her. "Miss Lucy Long" thus satirizes
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
black concepts of beauty and courtship and American views of marriage in general.
After its introduction to the stage by the Virginia Minstrels
Virginia Minstrels
The Virginia Minstrels or Virginia Serenaders was a group of 19th century American entertainers known for helping to invent the entertainment form known as the minstrel show...
in 1843
1843 in music
- Events :*February 6 - The Virginia Minstrels perform the first minstrel show .*November 13 - Gaetano Donizetti's final opera Dom Sébastien is premiered at the Paris Opera....
, "Miss Lucy Long" was adopted by rival troupes. George Christy
George Christy
George N. Christy was one of the leading blackface performers during the early years of the blackface minstrel show in the 1840s....
's cross-dressed
Drag queen
A drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and...
interpretation standardized the portrayal of the title character and made the song a hit in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. "Miss Lucy Long" became the standard closing number for the minstrel show, where it was regularly expanded into a comic skit complete with dialogue. Versions were printed in more songsters and performed in more minstrel shows than any other popular song in the antebellum period. In blackface minstrelsy, the name Lucy came to signify any sexually promiscuous pervert.
Lyrics
Many different "Miss Lucy Long" texts are known. They all feature a male singer who describes his desire for the title character. In the style of many folk song narratives, most versions begin with the singer's introduction:- Oh! I just come afore you,
- To sing a little song;
- I plays it on de Banjo,
- And dey calls it Lucy Long.
Compare this later recorded version by Joe Ayers:
- I've come again to see you,
- I'll sing another song,
- Just listen to my story,
- It isn't very long.
For nineteenth-century audiences, the comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
of "Lucy Long" came from several different quarters. Eric Lott
Eric Lott
Eric Lott is an American Professor of English and social historian.Lott received his Ph. D. in 1991 from Columbia University. He has been a faculty member in the Department of English at the University of Virginia since 1990....
argues that race is paramount. The lyrics are in an exaggerated form of Black Vernacular 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...
, and the degrading and racist
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
depictions of Lucy—often described as having "huge feet" or "corncob teeth"—make the male singer the butt of the joke for desiring someone whom white
White American
White Americans are people of the United States who are considered or consider themselves White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa...
audiences would find so unattractive. However, in many variants, Lucy is desirable—tall, with good teeth and "winning eyes". Musicologist William J. Mahar thus argues that, while the song does address race, its misogyny
Misogyny
Misogyny is the hatred or dislike of women or girls. Philogyny, meaning fondness, love or admiration towards women, is the antonym of misogyny. The term misandry is the term for men that is parallel to misogyny...
is in fact more important. "Miss Lucy Long" is a "'public expressions of male resentment toward a spouse or lover who will not be subservient, a woman's indecision, and the real or imagined constraints placed on male behaviors by law, custom, and religion." The song reaffirms a man's supposed right to sexual freedom and satirizes
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
courtship
Courtship
Courtship is the period in a couple's relationship which precedes their engagement and marriage, or establishment of an agreed relationship of a more enduring kind. In courtship, a couple get to know each other and decide if there will be an engagement or other such agreement...
and marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
. Still, the fact that the minstrel on stage would desire someone the audience knew to be another man was a source of comic dramatic irony.
The refrain
Refrain
A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...
is simple:
- Oh! Take your time Miss Lucy,
- Take your time Miss Lucy Long!
- Oh! Take your time Miss Lucy,
- Take your time Miss Lucy Long!
However, its meaning is more difficult to identify and varies depending on the preceding verse. For example:
- I axed her for to marry,
- Myself de toder day;
- She said she'd rather tarry,
- So I let her habe her way.
The verse makes Lucy out to be a "sexual aggressor who prefers 'tarrying' (casual sex, we may infer) to marrying . . . ." The singer for his part seems to be in agreement with the notion. Thus, Lucy is in some way in charge of their relationship. Of course, audiences could easily take "tarry" as either a sexual reference or an indication of a prim and reserved Lucy Long.
However, other verses put the power back in the male's hands. For example, this verse makes Lucy no better than a traded commodity:
- If she makes a scolding wife,
- As sure as she was born,
- I'll tote her down to Georgia,
- And trade her off for corn.
In the Ayers version of the song, Miss Lucy and the male singer are already married. The lyrics further subvert Lucy's ability to control the sexual side of the relationship:
- And now that we are married,
- I expect to have some fun,
- And if Lucy doesn't mind me,
- This fellow will cut and run.
The singer later promises to "fly o'er de river, / To see Miss Sally King." He is the head of the relationship, and Lucy is powerless to stop him from engaging in an extramarital affair. Lucy's social freedom is limited to dancing the cachuca
Cachuca
Cachucha is a Spanish solo dance in 3/4 to 3/8 of the time similar to Bolero. Cachucha is danced to an Andalusian national song with castanet accompaniment.- Etymology :From Spanish cachucha, small boat...
and staying home to "rock the cradle".
"Miss Lucy Long and Her Answer", a version published in 1843
1843 in music
- Events :*February 6 - The Virginia Minstrels perform the first minstrel show .*November 13 - Gaetano Donizetti's final opera Dom Sébastien is premiered at the Paris Opera....
by the Charles H. Keith
Charles H. Keith
Charles H. Keith was an American music publisher in Boston, Massachusetts in the 19th century. His business was located on Court Street, ca.1840s-1850s. Among the songs published by his firm were "Old Dan Tucker" , "Ole Bull and Old Dan Tucker" , and "Dandy Jim ob Caroline" .-External links:*...
company of Boston, Massachusetts, separates the song into four stanzas from the point of view of Lucy's lover and four from Lucy herself. She ultimately shuns "de gemman Dat wrote dat little song, Who dare to make so public De name ob Lucy Long" and claims to prefer "De 'stinguished Jimmy Crow
Jump Jim Crow
Jump Jim Crow is a song and dance from 1828 that was done in blackface by white comedian Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice. The first song sheet edition appeared in the early 1830s, published by E. Riley. The number was supposedly inspired by the song and dance of a crippled African slave called Jim...
."
Structure and performance
"Miss Lucy Long" is a comic banjoBanjo
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...
tune, and there is little melodic
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
variation between published versions. Nevertheless, the tune is well-suited to embellishment and improvisation. The verses and refrain
Refrain
A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...
use almost identical music, which enabled troupes to vary the verse/chorus structure and to add play-like segments. A repeated couplet
Couplet
A couplet is a pair of lines of meter in poetry. It usually consists of two lines that rhyme and have the same meter.While traditionally couplets rhyme, not all do. A poem may use white space to mark out couplets if they do not rhyme. Couplets with a meter of iambic pentameter are called heroic...
binds the piece together and gives it a musical center around which these embellishments can occur.
Minstrels usually performed the song as part of a sketch in which one minstrel cross dressed
Drag queen
A drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and...
to play Lucy Long. The 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...
players dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
d and sang with regular interruptions of comic dialogue. The part of Lucy was probably not a speaking role and relied entirely on pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
.
For example, in 1846
1846 in music
-Events:*August 16 - Gioachino Rossini marries artist's model Olympe Pélissier.*Adolphe Sax patents the "saxophone".*Electric lighting is installed at the Paris Opéra.-Published popular music:...
, Dan Emmett
Dan Emmett
Daniel Decatur "Dan" Emmett was an American songwriter and entertainer, founder of the first troupe of the blackface minstrel tradition.-Biography:...
and Frank Brower
Frank Brower
Francis "Frank" Marion Brower was an American blackface performer active in the mid-19th century. Brower began performing blackface song-and-dance acts in circuses and variety shows when he was 13. He eventually introduced the bones to his act, helping to popularize it as a blackface instrument...
added these lines to a "Miss Lucy Long" sketch:
[Dialogue.]
FRANK She had a ticklar gagement to go to camp me[e]tin wid dis child.
DAN hah! You went down to de fish Market to daunce arter eels. mity cureous kind ob camp meetin dat!
FRANK I[t] wasn't eels, it was a big cat fish.
DAN What chune did you dance?
Chorus [both singing].
-
- Take your time Miss Lucy
- Take your time Miss Lucy Long
- Rock de cradle Lucy
- Take your time my dear.
[Dialogue.]
FRANK I trade her off for bean soup.
DAN Well, you is hungryest nigger eber I saw. You'r neber satisfied widout your tinken bout bean soup all de time.
Chorus [both singing].
Popularity
The first published edition of "Miss Lucy Long" is uncredited in a 18421842 in music
- Events :*May 31 – Frederick William IV of Prussia creates a new order of merit for the arts and sciences. Those honoured include: Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Liszt and Gioacchino Rossini....
songster called Old American Songs. Billy Whitlock
Billy Whitlock
William M. "Billy" Whitlock was an American blackface performer. He began his career in entertainment doing blackface banjo routines in circuses and dime shows, and by 1843, he was well known in New York City. He is best known for his role in forming the original minstrel troupe, the Virginia...
of the Virginia Minstrels
Virginia Minstrels
The Virginia Minstrels or Virginia Serenaders was a group of 19th century American entertainers known for helping to invent the entertainment form known as the minstrel show...
later claimed the song in his autobiography: "I composed . . . 'Miss Lucy Long' (the words by T. G. Booth) in 1838
1838 in music
- Events :*March 7 – Jenny Lind, the "Swedish Nightingale" debuts at the Stockholm Opera*Giovanni Ricordi buys Giuseppe Verdi's copyrights.*Frédéric Chopin begins his affair with George Sand.- Popular music :...
."
Despite predating the minstrel show, "Miss Lucy Long" gained its fame there. The song was the first wench
Wench
Wench or Wenche may refer to:* Wench, a historical British Modern English colloquial term for a lower class woman and/or promiscuous woman. Also in the 19th and early 20th centuries a derogatory term for a non Euro-American woman, the male counterpart being Buck.* Wenche, a popular female first...
role in minstrelsy. The Virginia Minstrels
Virginia Minstrels
The Virginia Minstrels or Virginia Serenaders was a group of 19th century American entertainers known for helping to invent the entertainment form known as the minstrel show...
performed it as their closing number from their earliest performances. Dan Gardner introduced what would become the standard Lucy Long costume, skirts and pantalettes
Pantalettes
Pantalettes are undergarments covering the legs worn by women, girls, and very young boys in the early- to mid-nineteenth century....
. George Christy
George Christy
George N. Christy was one of the leading blackface performers during the early years of the blackface minstrel show in the 1840s....
's interpretation for the Christy Minstrels became the standard for other troupes to follow. The New York Clipper
New York Clipper
The New York Clipper, also known as The Clipper, was a weekly entertainment newspaper published in New York City from 1853 to 1924. It covered many topics, including circuses, dance, music, the outdoors, sports, and theatre. It had a circulation of about 25,000. The publishers also produced the...
ignored Gardner completely and wrote "George [Christy] was the first to do the wench business; he was the original Lucy Long."
By 1845
1845 in music
-Events:*March 13 - Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto is premièred in Leipzig*April 21 - Albert Lortzing's opera Undine debuts in Magdeburg.*June 4 - William Fry's opera Leonora debuts in Philadelphia....
, the song had become the standard minstrel show closing number, and it remained so through the antebellum period. Programs regularly ended with the note that "The concert will conclude with the Boston Favorite Extravaganza of LUCY LONG." The name Lucy came to signify a woman who was "sexy, somewhat grotesque, and of suspect virtue" in minstrelsy. Similar songs appeared, including "Lucy Neal". In the late 1920s, a dance called the Sally Long
Sally Long
Sally Long was a dancer and motion picture actress from Kansas City, Missouri. She graduated from Eden Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1921.-Dancer:...
became popular; the name may derive from the minstrel song.
Musicologist Robert B. Winans found versions of "Miss Lucy Long" in 34% of minstrel show programs he examined from the 1843–52 period and in 55% from 1843–47, more than any other song. Mahar's research found that "Miss Lucy Long" is the second most frequent song in popular songsters from this period, behind only "Mary Blane
Mary Blane
"Mary Blane", also known as "Mary Blain" and other variants, is an American song that was popularized in the blackface minstrel show. Several different versions are known, but all feature a male protagonist singing of his lover Mary Blane, her abduction, and eventual death...
". The song enjoyed a resurgence in popularity from 1855–60, when minstrelsy entered a nostalgic
Nostalgia
The term nostalgia describes a yearning for the past, often in idealized form.The word is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of , meaning "returning home", a Homeric word, and , meaning "pain, ache"...
phase under some companies.
There is also reference to "Miss Lucy Long" in Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin , born Walden Robert Cassotto, was an American singer, actor and musician.Darin performed in a range of music genres, including pop, rock, jazz, folk and country...
's version of the song "Mack the Knife
Mack the Knife
"Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife", originally "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer", is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English, The Threepenny Opera. It premiered in Berlin in 1928 at the...
" by Berthold Brecht and Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
, from their play "The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher. It was adapted from an 18th-century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and offers a Marxist critique...
".