Negro Workaday Songs, by Howard W. Odum & Guy B. Johnson

Once I loved a yaller gal, she said she’d marry me,

Hi, Jenny, ho, Jenny, ho, my Jenny Johnson!

Saw her eatin’ apples at a huckleberry bee,

Hi, Jenny, ho, Jenny Johnson!

Took her to a ball an’ we never did get back

Till the break of morn, when you hear the chickens quack.

She wouldn’t take the cars, so I took her in a hack;

Hi, Jenny, ho, Jenny Johnson!

Chorus:

Hi, Jenny, ho, Jenny, come along with me,

Hi, Jenny, ho, Jenny, ho, my Jenny Johnson!

Sweeter than the honey at a huckleberry bee,

Hi, Jenny, ho, Jenny Johnson!

O my darling Jenny, she’s the sweetest girl in town,

Hi, Jenny, ho, Jenny, ho, my Jenny Johnson!

Captivates the neighborhood for miles an’ miles aroun’,

Hi, Jenny, ho, Jenny Johnson!

Said she loved another an’ it broke my heart in two,

An’ I had to get it mended with a little piece of glue;

She gave me back my locket an’ a little silver shoe,

Hi, Jenny, ho, Jenny Johnson!

Now my Jenny’s married to a little yaller coon,

Hi, Jenny, ho, Jenny, ho, my Jenny Johnson!

Take care for Jenny’s hubby, for he’ll kill you mighty soon,

Hi, Jenny, ho, Jenny Johnson!

Wooly-headed pickaninnies runnin’ roun’ the flo’,

For they say there’s only two, but I wish they had a sco’;

I’m gwine away to China, so I’ll never see her mo’,

Hi, Jenny, ho, Jenny Johnson!

Runs from California

Plumb up to Maine.

I’s a Negro porter

On de pullman train.

Pullman train,

I’s de Negro porter

On de pullman train.

Braid on the cap an’

Buttons in a row,

On that blue uniform

Right down the fo’.

In pullman train,

Pullman train,

I’s a Negro porter

On de pullman train.

It’s a tip right here

An’ a tip right thar,

Tip all along

Up an’ down de pullman car.

Pullman train,

I’s a Negro porter

On de pullman train.

Pocket full o’ money,

Stomach full o’ feed,

What next in the worl’

Do a fellow need?

Pullman train,

I’s a Negro porter

On de pullman train.

Dar was a frog lived in a spring,

He had such a cold dat he could not sing,

I pulled him out an’ frowed him on de groun’,

Ol’ frog he bounced an’ run aroun’.

Chorus:

Camo, kimo, daro, war,

My high, my ho, my rumstipumstididdle,

Soot bag, pidly-wickem, linch ’em, nip cat,

Sing song, Polly, won’t you kime, oh?

Milk in de dairy, nine days ol’,

Rats an’ skippers are gettin’ hol’;

A long-tailed rat in a bucket of souse,

Jes’ come from de white folks’ house.

In North Carolina de niggers grow,

If de white man only plant his toe.

Water de ground with ’bacco smoke,

An’ up de nigger’s head will poke.

Way down South in Cedar street,

Dere’s where de niggers grow ten feet,

Dey go to bed, but ’tain’t no use,

Deir feet hang out for a chicken’s roos’.