Hol' Yuh' Han' (Hold Your Hand)

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: The singer says that it's a long time since he has seen his girl and asks [chorus] that she let him hold her hand. "Peel-head John Crow" sits on a tree top peeling blossoms. Let's wheel and turn until we fall down.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica)
KEYWORDS: courting separation nonballad bird
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, pp. 29-30, "Hol' Yuh Han'" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Olive Lewin, _Forty Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Washington: General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, 1973), pp. 59-60, "Dis Long Time Gal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Noel Dexter and Godfrey Taylor, _Mango Time - Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2007), pp. 76-77, "Dis Long Time Gal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jim Morse, _Folk Songs of the Caribbean_ (New York: Bantam Books, 1958), pp. 114-115, "Hol' Yuh Han'" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Hol' Yuh Han'" (on WIEConnor01)
NOTES [58 words]: "Peel-head John Crow" refers to the turkey vulture. Jekyll has a Jamaican Annancy story that explains why John Crow has no feathers on his head (Walter Jekyll, Jamaican Song and Story (New York: Dover Publications, 1966 (reprint of 1907 edition)), #43 pp. 132-135).
See "Wheel and Turn Me" for another example of wheel, turn and tumble down. - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: JaMu029

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