Nigger Sick

Find traditional instrumental music
Jump to: navigation, search

Back to Nigger Sick

X:1 T:Nigger Sick M:4/4 L:1/8 R:Reel B:Bayard - Dance to the Fiddle, March to the Fife (1981, No. 296) K:G dBcA dB c2|dBcA GE D2z2|dBcA dB c2|ABAG EG D2z2|| EGAG EGAz|EGAG EC Dz|EGAG EGA>B|cBcA GE Dx||


NIGGER[1] SICK. AKA and see "Niggery Sick," "Neeky Seeky." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, southwestern Pa. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AA'B. Collector Samuel Bayard heard these rhymes with the tune in southwestern Pennsylvania:

Nigger sick and nigger dead,
Nigger had a wooly head;
Nigger sick and nigger dead,
Devil take his curly head. .... (Bayard-H. White)


Nigger sick and nigger die;
Nigger eat a chicken pie. .... (Strosnider)

Fisk University African-American collector Thomas Talley printed the closely related rhyme in his Negro Folk Rhymes Wise and Otherwise (1922, p. 13):

Nigger! Nigger never die!
He gits choked on Chicken pie.
Black face, white shiny eye. Nigger! Nigger!

Nigger! Nigger never knows!
Mashed nose, an' crooked toes;
Dat's de way de Nigger goes. Nigger! Nigger!

Nigger! Nigger always sing;
Jump up, cut de Pidgeon's wing;
Whirl, an' give his feet a fling. Nigger! Nigger!


Additional notes

Sources for notated versions: - George Strosnider (elderly fidder from Greene County, Pa., 1930's), John Tustin (Greene County, Pa., 1944), Hiram White (elderly fiddler from Greene County, Pa., 1930's) [Bayard].

Printed sources : - Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle, March to the Fife), 1981; No. 296A-C, pp. 251-252.

Recorded sources: -


Back to Nigger Sick


  1. ↑ Some of items in the Traditional Tune Archive may contain offensive language or negative stereotypes. Such materials should be seen in the context of the time period and as a reflection of the attitudes of the time. The items are part of the historical record, and do not represent the views of the administrators of this site.
⧼⧽