Cotton Eye Joe

"Cotton-Eyed Joe" (also known as "Cotton-Eye Joe") ( Roud 942) is a traditional American country folk song popular at various times throughout the United States and Canada. It has historical associations with slavery in the American South. The song is also an instrumental banjo and bluegrass fiddle standard.

"Cotton-Eyed Joe" has inspired more than one country-western partner dance and line dance. The 1980 film '' Urban Cowboy'' included a version of the song. In 1985, the Moody Brothers' version of the song received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Country Instrumental Performance. The Irish group the Chieftains received a Grammy nomination for Best Country Vocal Collaboration for their version of the song with lead vocals by Ricky Skaggs on their 1992 album '' Another Country''. In 1994, a version recorded by the Swedish Eurodance group Rednex as " Cotton Eye Joe" became popular worldwide.

History

19th century

The origins of this song are unclear, although it predates the 1861–1865 American Civil War.Everett, Holly
"The Many Lives of 'Cotton Eyed Joe
Canadian Society for Traditional Music Conference, 2002, Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland. American folklorist Dorothy Scarborough (1878–1935) noted in her 1925 book ''On the Trail of Negro Folk-songs'' that several people remembered hearing the song before the war. Scarborough's account of the song came from her sister, Mrs. George Scarborough, who learned the song from "the Negroes on a plantation in Texas, and other parts from a man in Louisiana". The man in Louisiana knew the song from his earliest childhood and heard slaves singing it on plantations. Both the dance and the song had many variants.

The melody of the song may have originated in Ireland. Paddy Moloney of The Chieftains was on tour in Texas when he heard the song and immediately identified it as an old Irish folk melody, "The Mountain Top".

A number of possible meanings of the term "cotton-eyed" have been proposed. The phrase may refer to: being drunk on moonshine, or having been blinded by drinking wood alcohol, turning the eyes milky white; a black person with very light blue eyes; miners covered in dirt with the exception of their white eyes; someone whose eyes were milky white from bacterial infections of trachoma or syphilis, cataracts or glaucoma; or the contrast of dark skin tone around white eyeballs in black people.

American publishing house Harper and Brothers published the first printed version of the song in 1882. It was heard by author Louise Clarke Pyrnelle (born 1850) on the Alabama plantation of her father when she was a child. That 1882 version was republished as follows in 1910:

The lyrics of this version, in nondialectal standard American English are:

By 1884, the fiddle-based song was referred to as "an old, familiar air". In 1925, another version was recorded by folklorist Dorothy Scarborough and published.

Scarborough noted that the song seemed to be well known in the South prior to the Civil War, and parts of it had been sent in by various persons.

Over the years, many different versions of the song have been performed and/or recorded with many different versions of the lyrics (and many without lyrics). "Cotton-Eyed Joe", on occasion referred to as "The South Texas National Anthem", was played for minstrel-type jigs, and it has long been popular as a square dance hoedown and a couple dance polka.''Dance Across Texas Betty Casey'', University of Texas Press, 1985, p. 17.

A resident of Central Texas who learned the dance in Williamson County in the early 1880s described it as nothing but a heel and toe "poker" with fringes added. These fringes added to the heel and toe polka were clog steps which required skill and extraversion on the part of the dancer.

20th century

During the first half of the 20th century, the song was a widely known folk song all over English-speaking North America. One discography lists 134 recorded versions released since 1950. In more recent decades, the song has waned in popularity in most regions except some parts of the American South, where it is still a popular folk song.

Bob Wills and Adolph Hofner and his San Antonians both recorded the song, and according to music historian Bill C. Malone, Hofner's 1941 version was the one that did the most to popularize the song. A 1967 instrumental version of the song by Al Dean inspired a new round dance polka for couples.

The dance remained popular in Texas in the 1970s. A circle dance called "Cotton-Eyed Joe" can be found in the 1975 edition of ''Encyclopedia of Social Dance.'' The men stand on the inside of a circle facing out, and the women stand on the outside facing in; both circles follow a sequence of kick steps and struts.Albert and Josephine Bulter, ''Encyclopedia of Social Dance'', New York: Albert Bulter Ballroom Dance Service. New York, New York, 1975.

See also

* List of UK Singles Chart number ones of the 1990s

References

External links

"Cotton-Eyed Joe" in The Mudcat Cafe's Digital Tradition Folk Music Database
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080122031613/http://blog.allmusic.com/2008/01/18/the-long-enduring-journey-of-cotton-eyed-joe/ Samples from the Skillet Lickers and RedNex versionsbr>Cotton-Eyed Joe
at Roud Folk Song Index

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American folk dances
American folk songs
Burl Ives songs
Line dances
Nina Simone songs
Songs about Texas
Songs about fictional male characters
Songs with unknown songwriters
Year of song unknown