Bile Them Cabbage Down

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Boil them cabbage down, Bake that hoecake brown, Only tune that I can play is Boil them cabbage down." Fiddle tune, with floating verses from anywhere, e.g. "Raccoon has a bushy tail, Possum's tail is bare" or "Raccoon up a 'simmon tree"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recordings, Uncle Dave Macon, Fiddlin' John Carson)
KEYWORDS: fiddle dancing nonballad animal food floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 269, "Bile Them Cabbage Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 710, "Bile dem Cabbage Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, p. 11, "Bilin' Cabage" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 432, "Boil Them Cabbage Down" (1 fragment); also perhaps 155, "Jaybird Up a Simmon Tree" (1 text plus mention of 1 more; both are singles stanzas, "Jaybird up a 'simmon tree, sparrow(s) on the ground," which float; I list them here because this seems the most popular of the songs with the stanza, though they might instead be "Possum Up a Gum Stump" or something else)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 432 "Boil THem Cabbage Down" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 124-125, "Bile dem Cabbage Down" (1 text, with some unusual variants in the chorus); p. 168, "Boil Dem Cabbage Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 88, "Bile 'Em Cabbage Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 96-97, "Bile Dem Cabbage Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 121, "Bile Dem Cabbage Down" (1 text)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 68-69, "Bile That Cabbage Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 40, "Bile Them Cabbage Down" (1 text)
Roud #4211
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Boil Dem Cabbage Down" (OKeh 40306, 1925; rec. 1924)
Crockett's Kentucky Mountaineers, "Bile Dem Cabbage Down" (Crown 3101, 1931/Varsity 5046, n.d.; on KMM)
Dixie Crackers, "Bile Them Cabbage Down" (Paramount 3151, 1929)
Earl Johnson & his Dixie Entertainers, "Boil Dem Cabbage Down" (OKeh 45112, 1927)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Bile Dem Cabbage Down" (Vocalion 14849, 1924; Vocalion 5042, c. 1926)
Clayton McMichen's Wildcats, "Bile Dem Cabbage Down" (Decca 5436, 1937)
Riley Puckett, "Bile Dem Cabbage Down" (Columbia 254-D, 1924; Harmony 5127-H, n.d.)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Bile Them Cabbage Down" (on Stonemans01), "Bile 'em Cabbage Down" (on Autoharp01)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Bile Them Cabbage Down" (Columbia 15249-D, 1928; rec. 1927)
Jack Youngblood, "Bile Dem Cabbage Down" (Columbia 21103, 1953)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Raccoon" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Possum Up a Gum Stump" (floating lyrics)
File: LoF269

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