Raccoon

DESCRIPTION: "Raccoon has a bushy tail, Possum's tail is bare. Rabbit has no tail at all, 'cept a little bunch of hair." Verses about love, animals, anything at all: "Love it is a killing thing, Beauty is a blossom, If you want your finger bit, Poke it at a possum"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: animal love nonsense floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Randolph 260, "Kitty Cain't You Come Along Too?" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 162, "De Possum Am a Cunning Thing" (2 short texts plus mention of 1 more); also 163, "The Raccoon Has a Bushy Tail" (1 text plus 2 fragments; the "C" text has the chorus of "Cindy"); also 415, "Lynchburg Town" (3 texts plus 2 fragments, 2 excerpts, and mention of 2 more, all with the "Lynchburg Town" chorus, but "A" and "B" have verses from "Raccoon" and "Possum Up a Gum Stump and "D" and "E" are partly "If I Had a Scolding Wife" ("Lucy Long (I)"); only "C" seems to be truly "Lynchburg Town"); also 17, "I Wouldn't Marry" (7 text (some short) plus 6 excerpts, 1 fragment, and mention of 5 more, of which "A" appears to mix this with "Coming Around the Mountain (II -- Charming Betsey)" and "I Won't Marry an Old Maid")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 162, "De Raccoon Am a Cunning Thing" (1 tune plus a text excerpt); 163, "The Raccoon Has a Bushy Tail" (2 tunes plus text excerpts); 415, "Lynchburg Town" (4 tunes plus text excerpts, corresponding to "A," "B" (which go with this song), "E," and a "J" version that apparently is not cited in Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 226, "Children's Quatrains" ("De raccoon's tail am bushy") (1 short text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 83, "Raccoon's Got a Bush Tail" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 186, "Raccoon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 12-13, "Raccoon" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 225, "The Squirrel" (3 short texts, 3 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 76, "The Squirrel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 105, "Raccoon Lullaby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, p. 11, (no title) (1 fragment, 1 tune on p. 385. A single stanza: "Jay-bird pulled a two-mule plow, Sparrow, why don't you...."; this verse seems to float but has been found in songs of this type)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 165, "Old Bee Make de Honeycomb" (1 text, with most of the verses appearing to go here even though it has the "Old Bee" stanza also); also p. 169, (no title) (1 text, with verses probably from "Raccoon," unless they just floated in, while the chorus seems to be "Po' Liza Jane"); also sundry stanzas on pp. 169-170
Abbot/Swan-8Negro 4, "Squirl he tote a bushy tail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 398, "Raccoon's Got A Bushy Tail"; p. 401, "The Squirrel" (2 texts)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (no author listed; collected Leonidas Betts, "Love,'" Vol. XX, No. 3 (Aug 1972), p. 144, "Love's a little thing Shaped like a lizard, Runs around your heard And jumps through your gizzard" (1 short text, a floating verse that is similar to many songs; the first line might be best known as "Love it is a killing thing")
MidwestFolklore, W. L. McAtee, "Odds and Ends of North American Folklore on Birds," Volume 5, Number 3 (Fall 1955), p. 180-181, "(Ole Massa Buzzard, 'yo needn't fly so high)" (9 stanzas, probably from multiple sources, but some of the stanzas appear similar to this, e.g. one is the "Jaybird pulled a two-mule plow" stanza)
ST R260 (Partial)
Roud #3444
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Raccoon's Got a Bushy Tail" (on PeteSeeger08, PeteSeegerCD02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kemo Kimo" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Pains in My Fingers" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I Went to My Sweetheart's House" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Rat Coon, Rat Coon" (theme)
cf. "Bile Them Cabbage Down" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Mabel" (lyrics)
cf. "Old Coon Dog (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [74 words]: As with all these floating-animal-verse songs, it's hard to tell where one begins and another ends. I group them as best I can.
It's interesting to note that both Randolph and the "A" text of Brown's "De Possum Am a Cunning Thing" share part of a chorus, "(Oh/Do) come along, Sandy Boy," even though this is clearly not integral to the song. Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana's chorus is "Get along home, home, home (x3), Down the riverside." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: R260

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