Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal)

DESCRIPTION: "Massa had a yellow gal, He brought her from the south, Her hair it curled so very tight She couldn't shut her mouth." "He took her to a tailor" to repair her defect; "She swallowed up the tailor." Now he uses her nose "to hang his hat and coat."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1860 (broadside, LOCSinging sb10148a)
KEYWORDS: slave humorous floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 903-904, "Massa Had a Yellow Gal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 406, "Massa Had a Yaller Gal" (1 text plus 2 fragments; the one full text consists mostly of floating verses); also 405, "Dearest Mae" (the "C" excerpt contains the first verse of this song)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 406, "Massa Had a Yaller Gal" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 66-68, "Ole Mars'r Had a Yaller Gal," "Ol' Mars'r Had a Pretty Yaller Gal," "Massa Had a Yaller Gal" (2 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune); also p. 110, "Dar Was a Gal in our Town" (1 short text, with the "don't get weary" chorus though Scarborough links it with "Old Virginny Never Tire")
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #80, "Shoo Fly" (1 short text, 1 tune, lumped with "Shoo Fly" by Roud because it has the single chorus line "Shoo fly, don't you bother me" but which is otherwise "Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal)")
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #129, "Shoo Fly (Cindy)" (1 text, 1 tune, which Roberts considers to be "Cindy" but which starts with the "Mass had a yeller gal" verses of "Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal)" and has other floating verses)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 112, "Coloured Girl from the South" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #4/72, p. 27 and #4/64, p. 27, "Gal from the South" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 355, [no title] (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 481, "Massa Had a Yaller Gal" (source notes only)
ST BAF904 (Full)
Roud #11744
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon [w. McGee Bros.], "Don't Get Weary Children" (Decca 5369, 1937; Montgomery Ward 8029, 1939; Champion 45048; rec. 1934)
Kirk & Sam McGee, "Coming from the Ball" (on McGeeSmith1)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, sb10148a, "Gal From the South," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Bee Makes the Honey Comb" (floating verses)
cf. "Letter from Down the Road" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Ain't Got Time to Tarry
NOTES [147 words]: The version printed in Botkin has almost a ballad flavor; it is the exaggerated story of how a master dealt with a physically unusual slave. Dave Macon has a fuller version, "Don't Get Weary Children." The latter has a much larger set of verses, and might be a separate song -- but who knows how much of it comes from Uncle Dave's imagination?
The texts in Brown don't help much, either; two are fragments and the third a collection of floating verses. Scarborough's several versions also show much diversity. Probably the likeliest explanation is that the original is the printed "Gal from the South," which was modified in oral tradition and then was further "Uncle Dave-ified." - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb10148a: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BAF904

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