Toco Bad Lumber

DESCRIPTION: The singer warns "bad lumber" that she will never marry no matter how she "grease you' heel" or "pare you' toe"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage warning nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 33, "Toco Bad Lumber" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [75 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "In 'Toco Bad Lumber' the [reel dance] drummers sing about the female of bad reputation who seeks marriage, a highly prized achievement in the rural village. But peasants have codes of moral behaviour and anyone who does not conform to them is denounced as 'bad lumber.'"
Toco is the village in Trinidad that the Herskovitses reported on in 1939. It is on the north-east corner of Trinidad, the closest point to Tobago. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo033

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