Annotation:Say Darling Say
SAY, DARLING SAY. American, Song Air & Instrumental (whole time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. An instrumental and song recorded in Richmond, Indiana, in 1928 for the Gennett Record company in a session with Ernest V. Stoneman (guitar and harmonica), Willie Stoneman (guitar and vocal, and the Sweet Brothers--Earl (vocal and banjo) and Herbert (vocal and fiddle), although not all of the personnel were on every cut that day [1]. Due to contractual reasons (Ernest Stoneman had been signed by Ralph Peer at Columbia) several pseudonyms were used by Gennett when they issued the recordings from the session, including those on their subsidiary labels. The name of the group on Gennett GE 14017 ("Say, Darling Say") is to 'Justin Winfield', a collective name for Ernest Stoneman and the Sweet Brothers. Stoneman is said to have learned the song/tune from older cousins. The song is a variant of the 'lullaby' (although not given a lullaby treatment by Stoneman, in whose hands it is a breakdown with words) that goes by the name "Hush Little Baby (don't Say a Word)," and other titles. The words are nonsense words, partly derived from "Hush Little Baby" with the addition of more 'adult' verses about drunkenness and gender exploitation:
Oh, little darling, if you was mine,
You wouldn't do nothing but starch and iron,
Say, darling, say.
Starch and iron'd be your trade,
And I'd get drunk and lay in the shade,
Say, darling, say.
Hush up, darling, don't say a word,
I'm going to buy you a mockingbird,
Say, darling, say.
Mockingbird, if it don't sing,
I'm going to buy you a diamond ring,
Say, darling, say.
Diamond ring, if it turns to brass,
I'm going to buy you a looking glass,
Say, darling, say.
Looking glass, if it gets broke,
I'm going to buy you a billy goat,
Say, darling, say.
- ↑ Ivan M. Tribe, The Stonemans: An Appalachian Family and the Music that Shaped their Lives, 1993, p. 307.