Blue Tail Fly

"Jimmy Crack Corn" redirects here. For the song by Eminem, see Jimmy Crack Corn (song).

"Blue Tail Fly" ("Jimmy Crack Corn")
Written	1840s
Language	English
Form	strophic with chorus
Recorded by	Burl Ives

"Blue Tail Fly", "De Blue Tail Fly", or "Jimmy Crack Corn" is thought to be a blackface minstrel song, first performed in the United States in the 1840s that remains a popular children's song 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's lament over his master's death. The song, however, has a subtext of rejoicing over that death, and possibly having caused it by deliberate negligence.^[1] Most versions at least nod to idiomatic African 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 found in the American South.^[2][3][4] As it feeds on the blood of animals such as horses and cattle, as well as humans, it constitutes a prevalent pest in agricultural regions. This species of horse-fly has a blue-black abdomen, hence the name.^[3]

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^[5] or 1846^[6] and differ as to who authored it. One early printing attributed it to Dan Emmett.^[7] 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.^[8] Unlike many minstrel songs, "Blue Tail Fly" was long popular among African Americans and was recorded by Big Bill Broonzy, among others. A celebrated live version was recorded by Burl Ives.^[9] Folk singer Pete Seeger 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.^[10]

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.^[11] Additionally, "corn" is considered an American euphemism for "corn whiskey". Other possibilities include:

– "Gimcrack corn," cheap corn whiskey;

– That it refers to "cracking" open a jug of corn whiskey;

– That "crack-corn" is related to the (still-current) slang "cracker" for a rural Southern white.^[12]

– 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."^[13]

– That the chorus refers to an overseer who, without the master, has only his bullwhip 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.^[14] This suggests that, in the chorus, the slaves may be making whiskey and celebrating.

It is also said that Pete Seeger once maintained that the true lyrics were "gimmie cracked corn; I don't care",^[15] 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 Lincoln was an admirer of the tune, calling it "that buzzing song". It is likely he played it on his harmonica^[16] and it is said that he asked for it to be played at Gettysburg.^[17]

An instrumental version of the song, entitled "Beatnik Fly", was released by Johnny and the Hurricanes in 1960.

Eminem has a song off his Shady Records compilation album, Eminem Presents The Re-Up called "Jimmy Crack Corn," which features his labelmate 50 Cent. It was the second single off the album.

The Toy Dolls have recorded a cover of the song as Olga Crack Corn on their album Fat Bob's Feet.

Actress Vanessa Redgrave sings "Jimmy Cracked Corn"/"Blue Tail Fly" in one of the opening scenes to the Merchant-Ivory film of Edward Albee's adaptation of Carson McCullers' The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. 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).

Bugs Bunny sang it, albeit in his well-known New York accent, in the Warner Bros. cartoon short Lumber Jack-Rabbit.

When performing their version of the song on the album The Two Sides of the Smothers Brothers, 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 sings a version of the song in the Futurama 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 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, 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 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.^[18]

Tom Lehrer'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 on the refrain: "Gimme that corn and I don't care, the master's throwing it away."

Allan Sherman 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 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 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".

Notes

1. ^ "The Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English Speaking World", edited by Albert B. Friedman, cited at "Jimmy Crack…" on Mudcat Café's site mudcat.org
2. ^ Murphree, Steve. (2006). "Learn to live with and respect horse flies and deer flies". The Tennessee Conservationist 72 (4). http://www.tennessee.gov/environment/tn_consv/archive/flies.pdf. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Eaton, Eric R.; Kenn Kaufman. (2007). "Deer flies and horse flies". Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America. Hillstar Editions. pp. 284. ISBN 0-618-15310-1. http://books.google.com/?id=aWVi0IF_jcQC&pg=PA284. 
4. ^ Mullens, Bradley A.; Lance Durden. (2009). "Horse flies and deer flies (Tabanidae)". In Gary Mullen (ed.). Medical and Veterinary Entomology. Academic Press. pp. 254–267 (254). ISBN 0123725003. http://books.google.com/?id=6R1v9o-uaI4C&pg=PT272#v=onepage&q=. 
5. ^ Lott, 1993, 177
6. ^ Multiple citations on pdmusic.org, and at Mudcat.org. De Blue Tail Fly Jim Crack Corn… Lyr Add… Jimmy Crack…
7. ^ "Lyr Add…", on Mudcat.org
8. ^ "Jimmy Crack…" on Mudcat.org
9. ^ Ron Sweetman, Big Bill Broonzy in France and England on Jazzhouse.org. Accessed 10 Sept 2005.
10. ^ Stephen Holden, "The Cream of Folk, Reunited for a Cause," New York Times, May 19, 1993, p. C15.
11. ^ "A Short Essay on the Modes Of Defence", pp. 53–54: "And, perhaps, some ages hence, when the memory of an undertaking so ridiculous shall be obliterated, their decayed jim-crack curiosities may furnish amusement and speculation to antiquaries."
12. ^ "Lyr Add…", "Jimmy Crack…", both on Mudcat.org
13. ^ Straight Dope: Who is Jimmy, and why does he crack corn?
14. ^ Word Origins: Letter C
15. ^ Pete Peterson, RE: Jimmy Crack Corn and I Don't Care on mudcat.org. Accessed Jan 2, 2006.
16. ^ Wayne Erbsen (1993), Front Porch Songs, Jokes Stories: 48 Great Southern Sing-Along Favorites, Page 10.
17. ^ James J. Fuld (2000), The Book of World-Famous Music: classical, popular, and folk, Page 312
18. ^ "Cingular Pulls Ad After Racism Complaints". CBS Broadcasting Inc.. December 16, 2006. http://cbs13.com/national/Cingular.Ads.Complaints.2.474603.html. Retrieved November 16, 2008. 

References

• "A Short Essay on the Modes Of Defence" Article XV ofThe English Review, Or, An Abstract of English and Foreign Literature Vol VI, pp. 52–54. London: J. Murray (1785).
• De Blue Tail Fly, a version attributed to C.H. Keith (on pdmusic.org). Accessed 10 Sept 2005.
• Jim Crack Corn; or, The Blue Tail Fly, a version attributed to Dan Emmett (on pdmusic.org). Accessed 10 Sept 2005.
• The Blue-Tail Fly a shortened, 20th century version. Accessed 10 Sept 2005.
• Lott, Eric (1993). Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509641-X.
• Lyr Add: (De) Blue Tail Fly discussion on Mudcat.org gives several variants of title and lyrics, early publication information; its links include numerous other discussions of the song. Accessed 10 Sept 2005.
• Jimmy Crack Corn – Man or Myth discussion on Mudcat.org includes discussion of lyrics, cites further sources. Accessed 10 Sept 2005.