| Author | Topic: Add: Run, Boys, Run | |
| dmcg | Posted - 23 Jun 05 - 10:48 am | |
(Chorus) Run, boys, run, the patrol 'll catch you, Run, boys, run, you better get away. Run, boys, run, the patrol 'll catch you, Run, boys, run, you better get away. Charley run, Charley flew, Charley tore his shirt in two. Charley run, Charley flew, Charley tore his shirt in two. Marthy run, Marthy flew, Marthy lost her Sunday shoe. Marthy run, Marthy flew, Marthy lost her Sunday shoe. Booker dashed behind the gate, But he didn't escape that old black snake. Booker dashed behind the gate, But he didn't escape that old black snake. He run to the east, he run to the west, He run straight into a hornet's nest. He run to the east, he run to the west, He run straight into a hornet's nest. But some of these days his time will come, He'll hear the bugle and the drum, See them armies marchin' along, Lift his head and sing their song. Source: Alan Lomax, The Penguin Book of American Folk Songs, Penguin, 1964 Notes: Alan Lomax wrote:
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| dmcg | Posted - 23 Jun 05 - 10:50 am | |
Link for Nat Turner rebellion here. | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 29 Jun 05 - 06:01 am | |
No evidence, it seems, that this is a Scottish tune. General consensus would probably be Northern European (found in Norway, for example, as a halling) in origin. See The Fiddlers Companion for more details. | ||
| Azizi | Posted - 30 Jun 05 - 04:49 pm | |
Greetings! I'm not sure that I would agree that this song is based on a Scot "air". Of course, what do I know? {Not much, I hear folks shouting.LOL! A number of children's music books include this song under the name "Run, Children, Run" without providing its very serious historical context. In many folksong collections its title is "Run, Nigger, Run", and as Lomax says it was used to remind enslaved African American children, youth, and adults to beware of the vigilantes that they called 'pattyrollers'. The consequences of being caught by these vigilantes was much more than "losing a Sunday shoe". A slave without a pass could be severly whipped, or even sold 'down the river' away from their loved ones. Regardless of where the original melody or the original words came from, this song was about serious business. Azizi Azizi | ||
| billy weeks | Posted - 09 Jul 05 - 11:40 am | |
It is footnoted in Uncle Remus ('Mr Fox is Again Victimized') as: Run, nigger, run; patter-roller ketch you- Run, nigger, run; hit's almos' day' - observing that 'order was kept on the plantations at night by the knowledge that they were liable to be visited at any moment by the patrols'. Billy Weeks | ||