Annotation:Possum up a Simmon Tree (2)

Back to Possum up a Simmon Tree (2)

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POSSUM UP A 'SIMMON TREE [2]. Old-Time, Breakdown. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB.

'Possum up a 'simmon tree
Raccoon on the ground.
Raccoon says: "You son-of-a-gun,
Shake them 'simmons down!" ... (Ford)

The following verses were printed in The American Journal of Folklore (1913), in an article by E.C. Perrow called "Songs and Rhymes from the South". They were collected from black informants in eastern North Carolina in 1908:

A 'possum up a 'simmon-tree;
I winked at him; he winked at me;
I picked up a rock and hit him on de shin;
Sez he, "Ole feller, don't do dat agin!

Chorus:
Oh, come 'long boys, an' shuck dat corn;
We'll shuck and sing to de rattle ob de horn;
We'll shuck and sing till de comin' ob de morn,
An den we'll hab a holiday.

I carried 'im to Miss Polly Bell,
Because I knew she'd cook 'im well.
She made a fry; she made a stew,
A roast, a bile, an' a barbecue.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Ford (Traditional Music in America), 1940; p. 77.

Recorded sources:

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