Pick a Bale of Cotton

Last updated

"Pick a Bale of Cotton" (sometimes "Pick a Bale o' Cotton") is a traditional American folk song and work song first recorded by Texas inmates James "Iron Head" Baker (1933) [1] and Mose "Clear Rock" Platt (1939) [2] and later popularized by Lead Belly (Huddie William Ledbetter). Johnny Cash, as well as others, have released adaptations of the song.

Contents

Original lyrics

One of the verses, according to John Lomax's American Ballads and Folk Songs, includes: [3]

Dat nigger from Shiloh
Kin pick a bale o' cotton
Dat nigger from Shiloh
Kin pick a bale a day

Later versions of the folk song had amended the lyrics to:

Gonna jump down, turn around
Pick a bale of cotton
Gonna jump down, turn around
Pick a bale a day
Oh lordy, pick a bale of cotton
Oh lordy, pick a bale a day

The song is sung with increasing speed as it progresses, with ensuing verses having references to "me and my wife" replaced with the likes of "me and my gal", "me and my papa", "me and my friend". [3]

Covers

The song has been covered by many artists including Harry Belafonte (on Belafonte , 1955), The Vipers Skiffle Group, The Quarrymen and Lonnie Donegan. [4]

Johnny Cash

"Pick a Bale o' Cotton"
Single by Johnny Cash
A-side "Bonanza!"
B-side "Pick a Bale o' Cotton"
ReleasedJuly 1962 (1962-07)/August 1962 (1962-08)
Label Columbia 4-42512
Producer(s) Don Law and Frank Jones [5]
Audio
"Pick a Bale o' Cotton" on YouTube

Johnny Cash released an adaptation [6] [7] on a single for Columbia Records (Columbia 4-42512, with "Bonanza!" on the flip side. [8] That version of the song appears in the Cash compilation album The Legend. [7] It was released in July [9] or August 1962. [10]

Personnel

Other adaptations

Allan Sherman performed a parody in the early 1960s which included the lyric, "Jump down, spin around, pick a dress of cotton / Jump down, spin around, pick a dress o' wool."

Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee recorded it as a duo. Sonny Terry also recorded it with Woody Guthrie.

ABBA recorded it as a medley, the other tunes in the medley being "On Top of Old Smoky" and "Midnight Special". The track just titled "Medley" was recorded in 1975 and was the B-side to the 1978 vinyl single "Summer Night City". The medley also appeared as a track on the German charity album Im Zeichen eines guten Sterns on Polydor. The medley reappeared in the 1994 4-CD boxed set compilation Thank You for the Music and on the 2012 remastered ABBA as a bonus track.

Children's music artist Raffi recorded the song on his 1979 album, The Corner Grocery Store.

The song is sung by members of Navin Johnson (Steve Martin's) family under the opening and end credits of Martin's 1979 comedy The Jerk .

Dead Kennedys drummer D.H. Peligro recorded a version of this song under the name "Black Bean Chili Thing" on the 1995 self-titled album of his band Peligro.

Ludacris implemented the verse in his 2005 single "The Potion" as a breakdown before the third verse. He also references the verse in his feature on Missy Elliott's 2002 song "Gossip Folks" on the last line of his verse.

In 2014, Country and Irish singer Derek Ryan covered it in his 2014 album The Simple Things also releasing a music video. [11]

At some point the tune was adapted to the Hebrew words of “Mishenichnas Adar” — “[A Person] Who Enters Adar” — which is based on a line from the Talmud (Ta’anit 29a) that means “When a person enters Adar, their joy should be increased.” Adar is a Hebrew month — and home to the happy holiday of Purim.

Changed perspective

The song, particularly its original lyrics, has been criticized as racist and reminiscent of—and glorifying—the slavery period in American history. The original lyrics contained the racial slur nigger multiple times. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jump Jim Crow</span> American song about Jim Crow

"Jump Jim Crow", often shortened to just "Jim Crow", is a song and dance from 1828 that was done in blackface by white minstrel performer Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice. The song is speculated to have been taken from Jim Crow, a physically disabled enslaved African-American, who is variously claimed to have lived in St. Louis, Cincinnati, or Pittsburgh. The song became a 19th-century hit and Rice performed it all over the United States as "Daddy Pops Jim Crow".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ol' Man River</span> 1925 composition by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II

"Ol' Man River" is a show tune from the 1927 musical Show Boat with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, who wrote the song in 1925. The song contrasts the struggles and hardships of African Americans with the endless, uncaring flow of the Mississippi River. It is sung from the point of view of a black stevedore on a showboat, and is the most famous song from the show. The song is meant to be performed in a slow tempo; it is sung complete once in the musical's lengthy first scene by the stevedore "Joe" who travels with the boat, and, in the stage version, is heard four more times in brief reprises. Joe serves as a sort of musical one-man Greek chorus, and the song, when reprised, comments on the action, as if saying, "This has happened, but the river keeps rolling on anyway."

"Cotton-Eyed Joe" is a traditional American country folk song popular at various times throughout the United States and Canada, although today it is most commonly associated with the American South. The song is mostly identified with the 1994 Rednex version, which became popular worldwide. The song is also an instrumental banjo and bluegrass fiddle standard.

"When the Saints Go Marching In", often referred to as simply "The Saints", is a traditional black spiritual. It originated as a Christian hymn, but is often played by jazz bands. One of the most famous jazz recordings of "The Saints" was made on May 13, 1938, by Louis Armstrong and his orchestra.

"Streets of Laredo", also known as "The Dying Cowboy", is a famous American cowboy ballad in which a dying ranger tells his story to another cowboy. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.

"Midnight Special" is a traditional folk song thought to have originated among prisoners in the American South. The song refers to the passenger train Midnight Special and its "ever-loving light."

"Cocaine Blues" is a Western swing song written by Troy Junius Arnall, a reworking of the traditional song "Little Sadie." Roy Hogsed recorded a well known version of the song in 1947.

"Cotton Fields (The Cotton Song)" (also known as In Them Old Cotton Fields Back Home) is a song written by American blues musician Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly, who made the first recording of the song in 1940.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael, Row the Boat Ashore</span> Folk song based on a Sea Islands spiritual

"Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" is a traditional African-American spiritual first noted during the American Civil War at St. Helena Island, one of the Sea Islands of South Carolina. The best-known recording was released in 1960 by the U.S. folk band The Highwaymen; that version briefly reached number-one hit status as a single.

"Cindy" is a popular American folk song. According to John Lomax, the song originated in North Carolina. In the early and middle 20th century, "Cindy" was included in the songbooks used in many elementary school music programs as an example of folk music. One of the earliest versions of "Cindy" is found in Anne Virginia Culbertson's collection of Negro folktales where one of her characters, Tim, "sang a plantation song named 'Cindy Ann'," the first verse and refrain of which are:

"Rock Island Line" is an American folk song. Ostensibly about the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, it appeared as a folk song as early as 1929. The first recorded performance of "Rock Island Line" was by inmates of the Arkansas Cummins State Farm prison in 1934.

<i>My Son, the Folk Singer</i> 1962 studio album by Allan Sherman

My Son, the Folk Singer is an album by Allan Sherman, released by Warner Bros. Records in 1962. On the album sleeve, the title appears directly below the words "Allan Sherman's mother presents."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parchman Farm (song)</span> Song first recorded by Bukka White in 1940

"Parchman Farm" or "Parchman Farm Blues" is a blues song first recorded by American Delta blues musician Bukka White in 1940. It is an autobiographical piece, in which White sings of his experience at the infamous Mississippi State Penitentiary, otherwise known as Parchman Farm.

"Dink's Song" is an American folk song played by many folk revival musicians such as Pete Seeger, Fred Neil, Bob Dylan and Dave Van Ronk, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, and Cisco Houston as well as more recent musicians like Jeff Buckley. The song tells the story of a woman deserted by her lover when she needs him the most.

"The Ballad of Casey Jones", also known as "Casey Jones, the Brave Engineer" or simply "Casey Jones", is a traditional American folk song about railroad engineer Casey Jones and his death at the controls of the train he was driving. It tells of how Jones and his fireman Sim Webb raced their locomotive to make up for lost time, but discovered another train ahead of them on the line, and how Jones remained on board to try to stop the train as Webb jumped to safety. It is song number 3247 in the Roud Folk Song Index.

"On the Trail of the Buffalo", also known as "The Buffalo Skinners" or "The Hills of Mexico", is a traditional American folk song in the western music genre. It tells the story of an 1873 buffalo hunt on the southern plains. According to Fannie Eckstorm, 1873 is correct, as the year that professional buffalo hunters from Dodge City first entered the northern part of the Texas panhandle. It is thought to be based on the song Canaday-I-O.

"All the Pretty Little Horses" is a traditional lullaby from the United States. It has inspired dozens of recordings and adaptations, as well as the title of Cormac McCarthy's 1992 novel All the Pretty Horses. The melody is also used in the score of the film Misty of Chincoteague based on the book by Marguerite Henry.

"The House of the Rising Sun" is a traditional folk song, sometimes called "Rising Sun Blues". It tells of a person's life gone wrong in the city of New Orleans. Many versions also urge a sibling or parents and children to avoid the same fate. The most successful commercial version, recorded in 1964 by the British rock band The Animals, was a number one hit on the UK Singles Chart and in the US and Canada. As a traditional folk song recorded by an electric rock band, it has been described as the "first folk rock hit".

"Boll Weevil" is a traditional blues song, also known by similar titles such as "Boweavil" or "Boll Weevil Blues". Many songs about the boll weevil were recorded by blues musicians during the 1920s through the 1940s. However, a rendition by Lead Belly recorded in 1934 by folklorist Alan Lomax led to its becoming well-known. A 1961 adaptation by Brook Benton became a pop hit, reaching number two on the Billboard Hot 100. Fats Domino's "Bo Weevil" is a different song.

"Bonanza" is the musical theme for the NBC western television series Bonanza starring Lorne Greene. It was written for the series by Jay Livingston and Raymond Evans.

References

  1. Baker, James. (1933) 1997. "Pick a bale o' cotton." On Field Recordings Vol. 13 1933-1943. Dumfries & Galloway, UK: Document Records.
  2. Platt, Mose. 1939. "Pick a Bale 'o Cotton." Washington, DC: Library of Congress. Digital id: hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/afcss39.2643a2
  3. 1 2 3 Lomax, J. (1934). American ballads and folk songs. New York. The MacMillan Company.
  4. "Pick a Bale of Cotton". HistoryWired. Smithsonian Institution. 16 March 2012. Retrieved 7 June 2013. Includes lyrics of song
  5. "Johnny Cash - Bonanza! / Pick A Bale O' Cotton". Discogs . Retrieved 2019-01-20.
  6. John L. Smith (1 January 1999). Another Song to Sing: The Recorded Repertoire of Johnny Cash. Scarecrow Press. ISBN   978-0-8108-3629-7.
  7. 1 2 C. Eric Banister (1 August 2014). Johnny Cash FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Man in Black. Backbeat Books. ISBN   978-1-61713-608-5.
  8. Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 11 August 1962. pp. 51–. ISSN   0006-2510.
  9. The Johnny Cash Record Catalog. Greenwood Publishing Group. 1994. p. 7. ISBN   978-0-313-29506-5.
  10. Steve Turner (2005-10-30). The Man Called CASH: The Life, Love and Faith of an American Legend. Thomas Nelson. pp. 246–. ISBN   978-1-4185-7809-1.
  11. Music video - Derek Ryan - "Pick a bale of Cotton" (Nov 29, 2014)