Coolie Is Nobody, A

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus, "Blow bully blow boy/blow bully boy blow." The shantyman sings "A coolie is nobody." "I never jumped your mommy ... They call me bully hangman ... I never hanged your mommy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy shanty
FOUND IN: West Indies(Nevis)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 52-53, "A Coolie Is Nobody" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [114 words]: In the West Indies a "coolie" is an East Indian. Abraham's comment -- "This song does not reflect a real social situation on Nevis, since there were only three East Indian families, none of whom were ever discussed in such stereotyped terms" -- suggests that the song comes from some other West Indian island. See, for example, references to "coolies" in "Fan Mi Solja Man" and "Nobody's Business" from Jamaica. Beckwith and Roberts have this in the Jamaican stone-passing game song, "Dicky Saloman": "Kill de Coolie man dead" [Martha Warren Beckwith and Helen Roberts, Folk-Games of Jamaica (Poughkeepsie: Vassar College, 1922 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #19.e , pp. 23-24]. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS052

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography