Reg'lar, Reg'lar Rollin' Under
DESCRIPTION: Response is "Gimme the gourd fuh drink water." The leader has lines like "Reg'lar reg'lar rollin' under" or "Don't need no gourd fuh drink water"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (LomaxCD1713)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | gourd water
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #21453
RECORDINGS:
Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Reg'lar, Reg'lar Rollin' Under" (on LomaxCD1713)
NOTES [124 words]: Alan Lomax and Anna L. Chairetakis, liner notes for LomaxCD1713 describe the recording as a made up song to go with what Lomax found as "what seemed the oldest published black dance song from Virginia." He taught the singers the tune and they improvised the words. The "gourd to drink water" is in a couple of the songs Scarborough collected: a version of what Scarborough considers "Buffalo Gals," Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 112-114 "sung at dances by the slaves on the plantation before the war" has verses with the tag line "Loan me dat gourd to drink wa-a-ter!"; both versions of the children's ring game "Ransum Scansum," Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 131, have the line, "Bring me a gourd to drink water." - BS
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