Ginger Blue

DESCRIPTION: Walky, talky, Ginger Blue, White man run, but the nigger he flew." "Wakin' talkin' Ginger Blue, I can tell you might true, I'm just from the Tennessee mountains. Take a drink of beer as sweet as water That flows from the Tennessee fountains."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Randolph), but apparently in existence in the nineteenth century
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 298, "Ginger Blue" (1 fragmentary text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 496, "Jinger Blue" (1 fragmentary text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 496, "Jinger Blue" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 41, "(Last Night and the night before)" (1 text, which appears to consist of two lines of "Not Last Night But the Night Before" followed by two lines of "Ginger Blue")
Roud #11762
RECORDINGS:
Charlie Oaks, "Ginger Blue" (Vocalion 15344, 1926)
Arthur Tanner, "Dr. Ginger Blue" (Columbia 15479-D, 1929)
SAME TUNE:
Sherman's March ("Now, listen to my song," by Michael Fee) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 141)
NOTES [117 words]: The notes in Brown suggest that his text (the "Jinger Blue" version) might be derived from "Walkin' in the Parlor" as well as the nineteenth century pop song "Ginger Blue." Possible -- but with only a fragment, it's beyond proof.
Edward Harrigan, in his performance piece "The London Comic Singers," featured an African-American military unit, the "Ginger Blues" (an imitation of Harrigan's "Skidmore Guard" from the "Mulligan Guard" plays). The Ginger Blues had a song, which isn't this (it can be found in Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #11, pp. 37-40), but it's possible that one of the songs influenced the other. For background on Harrigan, see the notes to "Babies on Our Block." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R298

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