Across a Steeple

DESCRIPTION: "As I went across a steeple, I met a heap of people. Some was black, some was blacker, Some was the color of an ole chew of tobacco."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: as an independent piece, 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: colors drugs
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 82, "Across a Steeple" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Dan Tucker" (lyrics)
NOTES [197 words]: Jim Dixon points out that this verse is first found in, and almost certainly was written as part of, "Old Dan Tucker." One of the 1840s versions has the lines
Tucker went round hickory steeple,
Dar he met some colored people,
Some was black, an some was blacker,
Some was de color ob brown tobackur.
There are many slightly different versions in the early texts of "Old Dan." Usually it's the first line that changes the most: "I went up to Keeple steeple," "Tucker went up in a big high steeple," etc.
But the verse does float; there is a "Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye" text:
I went right up on top of a steeple,
Good-by, my lover, good-by;
To look right down on the colored people,
Good-by, my lover, good-by;
Some was black, and some was blacker;
Good-by, my lover, good-by;
And some was the color of a chew of tobacco,
Good-by, my lover, good-by.
So should this be filed with "Old Dan"? Possibly. But it does float, and the Solomon-ZickaryZan version appears to have been folk processed. (The fear, of course, is that what looks like folk processing might instead be a case of the Solomons cleaning up a racist text.) I'm keeping them separate, but only very tentatively. - RBW, (JD)
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ZiZa082B

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