Chapter 5

Introduction to Business Expenses

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2013
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Concepts in Federal Taxation 2013 20th Edition Murphy
Questions
1 Deductions for/from AGI Unchanged

2 Applicability of AGI to only individuals Unchanged

3 Requirement to deduct business expenses Unchanged

4 Two primary classifications of business expenses Unchanged

5 Separate reporting of deductions for a conduit entity Unchanged

6 Impact on taxable income of not separately reporting deductions Unchanged

from a conduit entity

7 Deductibility of personal expenses versus business expenses Unchanged

8 Ability-to-pay concept Unchanged

9 Mixed-use expenses and mixed-use assets Unchanged

10 Distinguish the differences between a trade or business and a Unchanged

production of income activity

11 Requirements for determining trade or business and production Unchanged

of income activity

12 Deductibility of capital expenditures Unchanged

13 Distinguishing between a deductible expenditure and capital Unchanged

expenditure

14 Start-up expenses Unchanged

15 Political and lobbying expenditures Unchanged

16 Deductibility of illegal expenditures Unchanged

17 Deductibility of expenditures to produce tax-exempt income Unchanged

18 Treatment of a hobby, vacation home, and home office Unchanged

19 Determining if a principal residence is a vacation home or rental Unchanged

property

20 Requirements for deducting home office expenses Unchanged

21 Criteria to deduct expenses for a cash basis taxpayer Unchanged

22 Payment of an expense by a cash basis taxpayer Unchanged

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23 Current deduction for prepaid expenses by cash basis taxpayer Unchanged

24 Criteria to deduct expenses for accrual basis taxpayer Unchanged

25 Economic performance test Unchanged

Problems
26 Deductibility of work clothes Unchanged

27 Deductibility of expenses - five scenarios Unchanged

28 Deductibility of expenses - five scenarios Unchanged

29 Reporting income and deductions from a partnership Unchanged

30 Incorporating income and deductions from a partnership on an Unchanged

individual return

31-COMM Determining if an individual is engaged in a trade or business - Unchanged

one-time job for a retired individual

32 Determining if an individual is engaged in a trade or business - Unchanged

renting property

33 Deductibility of expenses - embezzler Unchanged

34 Allocation of expenses from a mixed use asset Unchanged

35 Allocation of expenses from a mixed use asset/gain or loss from Unchanged

a mixed use asset

36-COMM Ordinary, necessary and reasonable - related party Unchanged

37 Ordinary, necessary and reasonable - five scenarios Unchanged

38 Ordinary, necessary and reasonable - four scenarios Unchanged

39 Current expenditure versus capital expenditure - four scenarios Unchanged

40-COMM Start-up expenses Unchanged

41 Start-up expenses - three scenarios Unchanged

42 Deductibility of illegal payments - three scenarios Unchanged

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43 Proper tax treatment of expenditures - four scenarios Unchanged

44 Deductibility of political and lobbying expenses - four scenarios Unchanged

45 Deductibility of lobbying expenses Unchanged

46-COMM Allocation of investment expenses between taxable and non- Unchanged

taxable investments

47 Allocation of investment expenses between taxable and non- Unchanged

taxable investments

48-COMM Reporting income and deductions from an S Unchanged

corporation/allocating investment expenses

49 Payment of another’s expense Unchanged

50 Payment of another’s expense – two scenarios Unchanged

51 Deductibility of hobby expenses Unchanged

52 Deductibility of hobby expenses Unchanged

53 Tax treatment of vacation home Unchanged

54 Vacation home - two scenarios (vacation home and rental use Unchanged
less than 14 days)

55 Rental/Vacation home rules - four scenarios Unchanged

56 Rental/Vacation home rules - three scenarios Unchanged

57-COMM Home office deduction Unchanged

58 Home office deduction - two scenarios (self-employed and Unchanged

employee)

59 Home office deduction Unchanged

60 Payment of another’s expense Unchanged

61 Deductibility of interest expense - cash basis versus accrual Unchanged

basis

62-CT Economic performance test - insurance expense Unchanged

63 Economic performance test – warranty expense Unchanged

64 Deductibility of self-insurance expense - cash basis taxpayer Unchanged

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65 All-events test Unchanged

66 Deductibility of an expense - cash and accrual basis taxpayer Unchanged

67 Deductibility of an expense - cash and accrual basis taxpayer Unchanged

68 Related party transactions - cash and accrual basis taxpayer Unchanged

69 Related party transactions - cash and accrual basis taxpayer Unchanged

70 Temporary difference between accounting income and taxable Unchanged

income

71 Temporary difference between accounting income and taxable Unchanged

income

72-IID Effect of certain expenses on AGI for self-employed taxpayer Unchanged

versus employee

73-IID Deductibility of duplex expenses Unchanged

74-IID Reasonableness of salary expense - related party Unchanged

75-IID Current expenditure versus capital expenditure Unchanged

76-IID Determining if an expense should be capitalized or expensed Unchanged

77-IID Start-up costs Unchanged

78-IID Lobbying expenses Unchanged

79-IID Hobby versus trade or business Unchanged

80-IID Prepaid interest Unchanged

81-IID Economic performance test – progressive jackpot Unchanged

82 RIA Tax Research Exercise Unchanged

83 RIA Tax Research Exercise Unchanged

84 TAX SIMULATION Unchanged

85 INTERNET Unchanged

86 INTERNET Unchanged

87 Research Problem Unchanged

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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Negro
workaday songs
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Negro workaday songs

Author: Guy Benton Johnson

Howard Washington Odum

Release date: November 18, 2022 [eBook #69378]

Language: English

Original publication: New Caledonia: University of North Carolina

Press, 1926

Credits: Tim Lindell, Harry Lamé, Jude Eylander and the Online
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEGRO

WORKADAY SONGS ***
 Please see the Transcriber’s
Notes at the end of this text.
The cover image and music
transcriptions have been created
for this e-text and are in the
public domain.

THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SOCIAL STUDY SERIES

NEGRO WORKADAY SONGS

 THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SOCIAL STUDY SERIES
T N H S $3.00
F B S N 5.00
N W S 3.00
S P 2.00
L M 2.00
T S S H S 2.00
S P W 2.00
R S P 1.50
T C N 1.50
C ’ I R 1.50

NEGRO WORKADAY SONGS

BY

HOWARD W. ODUM, Ph.D.

Kenan Professor of Sociology and Director of
the School of Public Welfare, University of
North Carolina
 AND

GUY B. JOHNSON, A.M.

Institute for Research in Social Science,
University of North Carolina

CHAPEL HILL
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1926

C , 1926, B
T U N C P

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

 P
E B C
RALEIGH

A vast throng of Negro workaday singers, mirrors of a race

Workingmen in the Southern United States from highway,
construction camp, from railroad and farm, from city and
countryside, a million strong
A half million migrants from the South, Eastward, Northward,
Westward, and some South again
Negro offenders in thousand fold in local jails, county chain
gangs, state and federal prisons
A horde of Southern casual laborers and wanderers down that
lonesome road
A brown black army of “bad men”—creepers and ramblers
and jamboree breakers, “travelin’ men” de luxe
Itinerant full-handed musicianers, music physicianers and
songsters, singly, in pairs, quartets, always moving on
A host of women workers from field and home and factory at
once singers and subjects of the lonesome blues
A swelling crescendo, a race vibrato inimitable, descriptive
index of group character, folk urge and race power
 PREFACE
Negro Workaday Songs is the third volume of a series of folk
background studies of which The Negro and His Songs was the
first and Folk-Beliefs of the Southern Negro was the second. The
series will include a number of other volumes on the Negro and
likewise a number presenting folk aspects of other groups. The
reception which the first volumes have received gives evidence
that the plan of the series to present scientific, descriptive, and
objective studies in as interesting and readable form as possible
may be successful in a substantial way. Since the data for
background studies are, for the time being, practically unlimited,
it is hoped that other volumes, appearing as they become
available and timely, may glimpse the whole range—from the
Negro “bad man” to the æsthetic in the folk urge.
In this volume, as in previous ones, the emphasis is primarily
social, although this indicates no lack of appreciation of the
inherent literary and artistic values of the specimens presented.
Indeed, so far as possible, all examples of folk expression in this
volume are left to tell their own story. The type melodies and
musical notations are presented separately with the same
descriptive purpose as the other chapters, and they are not
offered as a substitute for effective harmonies and musical
interpretation. For the purposes of this volume, however, the
separate chapters on the melodies and phono-photographic
records with musical notations are very important. It is also
important that they be studied separately, but in the light of the
preceding chapters, rather than inserted in the text to detract
from both the social and artistic interpretation of the songs
enumerated.
The Seashore-Metfessel phono-photographic records and
musical notations mark an important contribution to the whole
field of interpretation of Negro music. There may be an
outstanding contribution both to the musical world and to the
whole interpretation of Negro backgrounds in the possible thesis
that the Negro, in addition to his distinctive contribution to
harmony, excels also in the vibrato quality of the individual
voice. These studies were made at Chapel Hill and at Hampton
by Dr. Carl E. Seashore and Dr. Milton Metfessel of the
University of Iowa, under the auspices of the Institute for
Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina
through a special grant of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller
Memorial. Full acknowledgment to them is here made.
It should be kept constantly in mind that this volume, like The
Negro and His Songs, is in no sense an anthology or general
collection, but represents the group of songs current in certain
areas in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and
Georgia, during the years 1924-25. Of course all of this
collection cannot be included in this volume; and no doubt many
of the most important or most attractive specimens extant have
escaped us at this time. It is also important to note that in this
volume, as in the previous one, all specimens listed, except lines
or references otherwise designated, were taken directly from
Negro singers and do not represent reports from memory of
white individuals. So far as we know none of the songs in this
collection has been published, although there are countless
variations, adaptations and corruptions of the modern blues and
jazz songs represented in the group. The songs, however, were
all sung or repeated by actual Negro workers or singers, and
much of their value lies in the exact transcription of natural lines,
words, and mixtures. The collection is still growing by leaps and
bounds. In this volume every type is represented except the
“dirty dozen” popular models and the more formal and
sophisticated creations.
Since this volume presents a series of pictures of the Negro as
portrayed through his workaday songs it is important that all
chapters be read before any final judgment is made. Even then
the picture will not be complete. It has not been possible, of
course, to make any complete or accurate classification of the
songs. They overlap and repeat. They borrow sentiment and
expression and repay freely. Free labor song becomes prison
song, and chain gang melody turns to pick-and-shovel
accompaniment. The chapter divisions, therefore, are made with
the idea of approximating a usable classification and providing
such mechanical divisions as will facilitate the best possible
presentation.
The reader who approaches this volume from the point of
view of the technical student of folk song will likely be
disappointed at what he considers the lack of discrimination
displayed by the authors in admitting so many songs which
cannot be classed as strictly folk songs. We have frankly taken
the position that these semi-folk songs, crude and fragmentary,
and often having only local or individual significance, afford
even more accurate pictures of Negro workaday life and art than
the conventional folk songs. While we have spared no effort to
make the collection valuable for folk song students, we have
approached the work primarily as sociologists.
For assistance in recording the type melodies in Chapter XIV
we are specially indebted to Mr. Lee M. Brooks, and for many of
the songs of women to Mrs. Henry Odum. We wish to thank Mr.
Gerald W. Johnson for his goodness in going over much of the
manuscript and making valuable suggestions. To Dr. L. R.
Wilson, Director of the University of North Carolina Press, we
are much indebted for coöperation and suggestions.
C H H. W. O.
January, 1926 G. B. J.
 CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. B R N S
W 1
II. T B :W S S 17
III. S L R 35
IV. B M B J 47
V. S J ,C G , P 71
VI. S C C G 88
VII. J S H W W 118
VIII. M ’ S W 135
IX. W ’ S M 152
X. F M T 166
XI. W R S 188
XII. T A B L W
G 206
XIII. J H : E N
W 221
XIV. T N M 241
XV. T P - R
N S 252
B 265
I S 271
NEGRO WORKADAY SONGS
 CHAPTER I
BACKGROUND RESOURCES IN NEGRO SONG AND
WORK
o discover and present authentic pictures of the Negro’s
T folk background as found in his workaday songs is a large
and promising task of which there are many phases. Here
are spontaneous products of the Negro’s workaday experiences
and conflicts. Here are reflections of his individual strivings and
his group ways. Here are specimens of folk art and creative
effort close to the soil. Here are new examples of the Negro’s
contributions to the American scene. Here is important material
for the newer scientific interest which is taking the place of the
old sentimental viewpoint. And here is a mine of descriptive and
objective data to substitute for the emotional and subjective
attitudes of the older days.
It is a day of great promise in the United States when both
races, North and South, enter upon a new era of the rediscovery
of the Negro and face the future with an enthusiasm for facts,
concerning both the newer creative urge and the earlier
background sources. Concerning the former, Dr. Alain Locke
recently has said:[1] “Whoever wishes to see the Negro in his
essential traits, in the full perspective of his achievement and
possibilities, must seek the enlightenment of that self-portraiture
which the present development of the Negro culture offers.” One
of the best examples of that self-portraiture is that of the old
spirituals, long neglected, but now happily the subject of a new
race dedication and appreciation. Now comes another master
index of race temperament and portrayal, as found in some of the
Negro’s newer creations. No less important, from the viewpoint
of sheer originality and poetic effort as well as of indices of traits
and possibilities, are the seemingly unlimited mines of workaday
songs, weary blues, and black man ballads. In a previous
volume[2] we presented a sort of composite picture from two
hundred songs gathered two decades ago and interpreted with
something of prophetic evaluation. In this volume of Negro
Workaday Songs is presented a deeper mine of source material,
rich in self-portraiture and representative of the workaday
Negro.
[1] The New Negro, edited by Alain Locke.
[2] The Negro and His Songs, by Howard W. Odum and Guy B.
Johnson.

In his Peter the Czar, violent story of “lashed sentences,”

perfectly suited to the depiction of primitive character, Klabund
pictures vividly a certain Great Enemy about whose “shivering
shoulders lay a rainbow like a silken shawl.” Digging to the
syncopated rhythm of song and fast-whirling pick, a Negro
workman sings of another rainbow, equally vivid and shoulder-
draped, more concrete, personal, and real:
Ev’ywhere I look this,
Ev’ywhere I look this mo’nin’,
Looks like rain.
I got rainbow
Tied ’round my shoulder,
Ain’t gonna rain,
Lawd, ain’t gonna rain.[3]
[3] Musical notation will be found in Chapter XIV.

In addition to the poetic imagery in this seemingly

unconscious motor-minded product, one may glimpse evidences
of simple everyday experience, wishful thought, childlike faith,
workaday stolidity, physical satisfaction, and subtle humor. But
he can find still more humor and experience, with a good bit of
metaphor thrown in for good measure, in the “feet rollin’” stanza
of another wanderer’s song of the road:
 I done walk till,
Lawd, I done walk till
Feet’s gone to rollin’,
Jes’ lak a wheel,
Lawd, jes’ lak a wheel.

Resourcefulness, humor, defense mechanism, imagination, all

might be found in the spectacle of a group of Negroes singing
over and over again on a hot July day the refreshing lines,
Oh, next winter gonna be so cold,
Oh, next winter gonna be so cold,
Oh, next winter gonna be so cold,
Fire can’t warm you, be so cold.

With the thermometer around a hundred, and the work of

digging at hand, this song of “parts,” with some of the singers
using the words, “be so cold, be so cold” as an echo,
undoubtedly had peculiar merit.
Perhaps there have been few, if any, lines of poetry more
popular than Wordsworth’s “The light that never was on sea or
land.” The Negro worker sings of a more earthly yet equally
miraculous light to guide his pathway, when he complains,
Now ev’y time I,
Time I start ’round mountain,
My light goes out,
Lawd, Lawd, my light goes out.
I’m gonna buy me,
Buy me magnified lantern,
It won’t go out,
Lawd, Lawd, it won’t go out.

How much of symbolism is to be found in the Negro’s

workaday songs? How much subjective imagery, how much
unconscious allegory? There are abundant examples of the free
use of symbolism in his love songs and popular jazz appeals. But
what does he mean when he sings,
 Ever see wild cat
Hug a lion, Lawd, Lawd?
My ol’ bear cat
Turn to lion, Lawd, Lawd.
Ever see lion
Run lak hell, Lawd, Lawd?

Or contrast this simple individual song, with its humor and easy-
going rhythm, with the power and appeal of group singing. Here
is a goodly party of two-score white folk, seated at twilight
under the trees in a grove, joyous guests at a turkey dinner near
the old colonial home. There is merriment. Song and jest, toast
and cheer abound. The waiters have gone. Then from the kitchen
door comes the song of Negroes, beginning low, rising in
volume, telling of the sinking of the Titanic. What is it in that
final harmony of “God moved upon the waters,” sung by a
Negro group, which silenced the merrymakers into willing
recognition that here may be perfect art and perfect effect? Does
this Negro minstrel type, rendered thus in native setting, become
for the moment the perfect expression of folk spirit and folk art?
Hundreds of verses dedicated to the business of moving about
give evidence that the trail of the black knight of the road is
strewn with spontaneous song, often turned into polished phrase.
A favorite stanza has long been descriptive of being “on road
here few days longer, then I’ll be going home.” Sung again and
again, the song takes on a new form but loses nothing of its
emphatic meaning:
I’m gonna row here,
I’m gonna row here
Few days longer,
Then I’ll be gone,
Lawd, I’ll be gone.
For, says the worker, “If I feel tomorrow like I feel today, I’m
gonna pack my suitcase and walk away,” and “reason I’m
workin’ here so long, hot flambotia and coffee strong.”
Following the trail of the workaday Negro, therefore, one may
get rare glimpses of common backgrounds of Negro life and
experience in Southern communities. Here were the first real
plantings of the modern blues, here songs of the lonesome road,
here bad man ballads, here distinctive contributions in songs of
jail and chain gang, here songs of white man and captain, here
Negro Dr. Jekyls and Mr. Hydes. Here are found new
expressions of the old spirituals and remnants still surviving.
Here man’s song of woman is most varied and original, and
woman’s song of man is best echoed from days and nights of
other times. Here are reflected the epics of John Henry, Lazarus,
Dupree, and the others. Here are folk fragments, cries and
“hollers,” songs to help with work, physical satisfaction and
solace, the “Lawdy-Lawdy” vibrato of evening melancholy and
morning yodel. Here may be found the subliminal jazz, rare
rhythm and movement, coöperative harmony as characteristic as
ever the old spirituals revealed. Nevertheless, too much
emphasis cannot be placed upon the danger of over-
interpretation, for while the workaday songs provide a seemingly
exhaustive supply of mirror plate for the reflection of folk
temperament and struggle, too much analysis must not obscure
their vividness or the beauty and value of their intrinsic qualities.
It is important to note the extent to which the notable popular
blues of today, more formal embodiment of the Negro’s
workaday sorrow songs, have come from these workaday
products. Here are true descendants of the old worshipers who
sang so well of the Rock in a weary land. And echoing from
Southern distances, from Memphis and Natchez, from New
Orleans and Macon, from Charleston and Atlanta, and from
wayside roads and camps, from jail and chain gang, come
unmeasured volume of harmony, unnumbered outbursts of song,
perfect technique of plaintive appeal. Many of the most plaintive
lines of blues yet recorded were gathered decades ago from
camp and road in Mississippi before the technique of the modern
blues had ever been evolved. Eloquent successors to the old
spirituals with their sorrow-feeling, these songs of the lonesome
road have gathered power and numbers and artistic interpretation
until they defy description and record. Today the laborer, the
migrant, the black man offender constitute types as distinctive
and inimitable as the old jubilee singers and those whom they
represented. Wherever Negroes work, or loaf, or await judgment,
there may be heard the weary and lonesome blues so strange and
varied as to reveal a sort of superhuman evidence of the folk
soul. No amount of ordinary study into race backgrounds, or
historical annals of African folk, or elaborate anthropological
excursions can give so simply and completely the story of this
Negro quest for expression, freedom, and solace as these low-
keyed melancholy songs.
And what names and lines, words and melodies, records and
improvisations of the new race blues! Plaintive blues, jolly
blues, reckless blues, dirty dozen blues, mama blues, papa blues,
—more than six hundred listed by one publisher and producer.
Here they are—the workaday sorrow songs, the errant love
songs, the jazz lyrics of a people and of an age—as clearly
distinctive as the old spirituals. And how like the road songs and
the gang lines, straight up from the soil again, straight from the
folk as surely as ever came the old spirituals.
Samples of the growing list of blues, some less elegant, some
more aggressive, will be found in Chapter II. And of course we
must not forget the bad man blues: Dangerous Blues, Evil Blues,
Don’t Mess With Me Blues, Mean Blues, Wicked Blues, and most
of all the Chain Gang Blues, Jail Blues, and the Cell-bound
Blues.
All boun’ in prison,
All boun’ in jail,
 Col’ iron bars all ’roun’ me,
No one to pay my bail.

And the singer presents, as one of his standard versions of many

songs, a regular weekly calendar:
Monday I was ’rested,
Tuesday I was fined,
Wednesday I laid in jail,
Thursday I was tried,
Friday wid chain gang band,
Saturday pick an’ shovel,
Sunday I took my rest,
Monday wanta do my best.

Perhaps the most common concept found in the chain gang and
road songs and appearing here and there in all manner of song is
the concept of a letter from home, the inability to go home
without “ready money,” the attempt to borrow from the captain,
or to get a parole.
Every, every mail day,
I gits letter from my mother,
Cryin’, “Son, come home,
Lawdy, son, come home.”
I didn’t have no,
No ready-made money,
I couldn’t go home,
Lawd, couldn’t go home.

A constant source of song is the conflict between actual

conditions and desirable ends, between life as it is and ideals of
wishful dreaming. “I want to go home,” says the workman, but
“I don’t want no trouble wid de walker.” The resulting product is
absence from home, absence of trouble with the captain or
walker, and abundance of song.
I don’t want no trouble,
 I don’t want no trouble,
I don’t want no trouble wid de walker.
Lawd, Lawd, I wanta go home.
Me an’ my buddy jes’ come,
Me an’ my buddy jes’ come,
Me an’ my buddy jes’ come here.
Lawd, Lawd, wanta go home.

Again and again the Negro wanderer portrays home, parents,

brothers and sisters, friends, as the most highly esteemed of life’s
values—striking paradox to the realism of his practice. Idealism
in song and dreams, in workaday songs as well as spirituals,
alongside sordidness in living conditions and physical
surroundings, appear logical and direct developments from the
type of habitation which the Negro common man has ever
known.
The Negro “bad man” who sings sorrowfully of his mother’s
admonitions and his own mistakes, glories also in the motor-
imaged refrain:
In come a nigger named Billy Go-helf,
Coon wus so mean wus skeered uf hisself;
Loaded wid razors an’ guns, so they say,
’Cause he killed a coon most every day.

A later chapter is devoted to this notable character, the “bad

man,” whose varied pictures represent a separate Negro
contribution. Here are new and worthy Negro exhibits to add to
the American galaxy of folk portraits: Railroad Bill alongside
Jesse James, the Negro “bad man” beside the Western
frontiersman, and John Henry by Paul Bunyan. For from the
millions of Negroes of yesterday and as many more today, with
their oft-changing and widely varying economic and social
conditions, has come a rare and varied heritage of folk tradition,
folk character, and folk personality. Much of this might remain
forever unknown and unsung were it not for the treasure-house
of Negro song, the product of a happy facility for linking up the
realities of actual life with wishful thinking and imaginative
story.
Of the grand old “saints,” white haired “Uncles” and
“Aunties,” we have viewed from near and far scores of
inimitable examples. Of the thousands of musicianers, songsters
and workers, and those who sing “down that lonesome road,”
recent epochs have mirrored many. But what of the real and
mythical jamboree breakers and bad men, or of Po’ Lazarus and
Stagolee, or of John Henry, “forehanded steel-drivin’ man” and
ideal of the Negro worker?
Here are rare folk figures silhouetted against a sort of shifting
race background with its millions of working folk and wanderers
moving suddenly and swiftly across the scene. A brown-black
army of ramblers, creepers, high flyers, standin’ men, all-night
workers, polish men, “stick and ready” from the four corners of
the States—Lazarus, Billy Bob Russel, Shootin’ Bill, Brady,
Dupree, and the others. And then John Henry, stately and strong
in contrast, noble exponent of sturdy courage and righteous
struggle, faithful to death.
John Henry went to the mountain,
Beat that steam-drill down;
Rock was high, po’ John was small,
He laid down his hammer an’ he died,
Laid down his hammer an’ he died.

A chapter on “Man’s Song of Woman” will make but a small

beginning of a large task. Its sequel must be deferred until the
lover’s specialisms can be published with a liberal usage of the
psychiatrists’ terminology. A chapter on “Woman’s Song of
Man” ought also to have a companion sequel in the book of
Negro symbolism. A chapter on “Workaday Religious Songs”
can present only a small portion of those now being sung, but
will be representative of the present heritage of the old spirituals.
A chapter on the miscellaneous fragments, “hollers,” lines,
incoherent and expressive “Lawdy-Lawd-Lawds” gives one of
the best pictures of the Negro workaday character and habits.
Some of these types make a very good safety valve for the Negro
singer; in a different way their plainness may restrain the
enthusiast from setting too much “store” by all the Negro’s
songs. The characters of John Henry and Left Wing represent
two types, one the mythical and heroic, the other the real and
commonplace, both typical of the Negro’s idealism and his
actual life. The examples of “movement and imagery” are as
characteristic of the Negro workaday experience as were the
harmonies and swaying of the old spirituals. They are indices to
guide judgment and interpretation of the Negro temperament. In
each of these chapters, it will be understood, only enough
material is presented to illustrate the case, including, however,
always the most representative specimens which the authors
have been able to collect within their field and time limit. Much
that is similar will necessarily await publication in volumes in
which the chief objective will be preservation and completeness
rather than interpretation.
Many pictures of the workaday Negro are presented in this
volume through the medium of his songs. They are silhouetted,
as it were, at first against a complex background of Negro life
and experience. The pictures are vivid, concrete, distinct, often
complete. But most of all, perhaps, they have been moving
pictures. From the first glimpse of the Negro singer with his
“feet’s gone to rollin’ jes’ lak a wheel,” to the last great scene of
John Henry dying with the “hammer in his hand,” there is
marvelous movement alongside rare imagery. Sometimes rhythm
and rhyme, but always movement, have dominated the Negro’s
chief characterizations. And this movement in the workaday
songs is as much a distinctive feature as were the swaying
bodies, the soothing rhythm, and swelling harmony of the old
spirituals. Picture the Negro workingman in his song and story
life and you picture him on the move.
It is scarcely possible to describe this element of movement in
the Negro workaday songs. And yet the mere citation and
classification of representative examples will suffice to point out
the particular qualities of action which might justify the added
element of epic style, if one remembers that the singer’s concept
of the heroic, while very real, is not exalted in the Greek sense.
There are those who do not feel that the Negro’s workaday songs
are characterized by the qualities of poetry; yet do they not
arouse the feelings and imagination in vivid and colorful
language? The type of language used—that is the Negro’s own.
In the same way there can be no doubt of his songs emphasizing
the quality of action; his heroes and principal figures, like his
language, reflect his concepts and tell his stories. Whether epic
or heroic,
I’m the hot stuff man,
From the devil’s land,
I’m a greasy streak o’ lightning,
Don’t you see, don’t you see?

has plenty of action and imagery in it. And it is characteristic of

much of the Negro workaday style of talk, imagination, and
thought.
Many of the pictures are vivid because of the action concept
and the rhyming metaphors.
In come a nigger named Slippery Jim,
None of de gals would dance wid him,
He rech in his pocket an’ drew his thirty-two,
Dem niggers didn’t run, good Gawd, dey flew.

There was also a woman, one Eliza Stone, from a bad, bad land,
who threatened to break up the jamboree with her razor but who
also “jumped in de flo’, an’ doubled up her fist, say ‘You wanter
test yo’ nerve jes’ jump against this.’” Note further a varying
reel of moving characters and scenes.
Police got into auto
An’ started to chase that coon,
They run ’im from six in the mo’nin’,
Till seven that afternoon.
The coon he run so bloomin’ fas’
Till fire come from his heels,
He scorched the cotton an’ burnt the corn,
An’ cut a road through farmers’ fiel’s.

The continuous search after the workaday folk song will

always provide one of the most important guides to the
“discovery” of the Negro. The task of finding and recording
accurately the folk expression is a difficult one under most
circumstances. Under certain circumstances it is an easy task,
and always an interesting one. If we keep a record of efforts,
taken at random, as experimental endeavor, in a cross country
visit through North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and
Georgia, about ten per cent, at best, of the requests for songs will
be successful. There are other times, when setting and procedure
are worked out well, when almost one hundred per cent success
would be attained. In most instances the Negro is at his “best”
when being urged to coöperate in the rendering of his folk songs.
By his “best” is meant that he reveals a striking nature and
strong personality, whether in affirming stoutly that he knows no
songs now or that he has forgotten what he used to know. He
protests vigorously that he does not sing well enough, that he
cannot say the words of songs unless he can sing, that he cannot
sing unless others are singing, that he has to be in the spirit of
the song, or that he will get some songs together and bring them
in, or that he will bring a quartet or a pal. Rarely ever does he
“produce” if let alone with only a first approach. Nor can he be
blamed. He is entirely within his own self-protecting domain, so
that his attitude may be put down, not only as a characteristic
one but also as a commendable one. He has his own fun, too, in
the situation. In general there are several types from which little
success may be expected. The more educated and sophisticated
Negro not only does not as a rule coöperate, but looks with
considerable condescension upon those who seek his help. There
are many who believe that all songs desired are for immediate
transcription to printed music or phonograph record. These are
of little assistance. Others feel that some hidden motive is back
of the request. Still others for various reasons do not coöperate.
Nor will the Negro student or musician himself find ready
coöperation among his common folk who feel constrained to
withhold their folk art from the learned of their own race.
Perhaps the most striking observation that comes from the
whole experience is the seemingly inexhaustible supply of songs
among the workaday Negroes of the South. We have yet to find a
“bottom” or a limit in the work songs among the crowds of
working men in one community. Just as often as there is
opportunity to hear a group of Negroes singing at work, just so
often have we found new songs and new fragments. There is so
far no exception to this rule. Likewise we have yet to find an
individual, whose efforts have been freely set forth in the
offering of song, whose supply of songs has been exhausted.
Time and time again the approach has been made, with the
response, “Naw, sir, cap’n, I don’t know no songs much,” with
an ultimate result of song after song, seemingly with no limit.
Partly the singer is honest; he does not at the time, think of many
songs nor does he consider himself a good singer; but when he
turns himself “loose” his capacity for memory and singing is
astonishing.
The same general rule with reference to dialect is used in this
volume as was the case in The Negro and His Songs.[4] There can
be no consistency, except the consistency of recording the words
as nearly as possible as rendered. Words may occur in two or
three variations in a single stanza and sometimes in a single line.
The attempt to make formal dialect out of natural speech renders
the product artificial and less artistic. We have therefore
followed the general practice of keeping the dialect as simple as
possible. Dialect, after all, is a relative matter. It is the sort of
speech which is not used in one’s own section of the country. As
a matter of fact, much of what has passed as Negro dialect is
good white Southern usage, and there is nothing to justify the
attempt to set aside certain pronunciations as peculiar to the
Negro simply because a Negro is being quoted. Consequently we
have refrained from the use of dialect in all cases where the
Negro pronunciation and the usual white pronunciation are the
same or practically the same. If the reader will grasp the basic
points of difference between Negro and white speech and will
then keep in mind the principle of economy, he will have no
difficulty in following the peculiarities of dialect.
[4] The Negro and His Songs, pp. 9-11, 293-94. There is a good
discussion of dialect in James Weldon Johnson’s Book of
American Negro Spirituals, pp. 42-46.

The principle of economy will be found to operate at high

efficiency in Negro speech. It will nearly always explain the
apparent inconsistencies in dialect. For example, the Negro often
says ’bout and ’roun’ for about and around. But he might vary
these to about, aroun’, ’round, and around in a single song,
depending upon the preceding and succeeding sounds. He would
say, “I’ll go ’bout two o’clock,” but he also would say, “I went
about two o’clock,” because in the former case it is easier to say
’bout than about, while in the latter the reverse is true.
Rhythm is also related to dialect. In ordinary speech most
Negroes would say broke for broken, but if the rhythm in singing
called for a two-syllable sound they would say broken rather
than broke.
 Very few of the popular songs which we heard twenty years
ago are found now in the same localities. The places that knew
them will know them no more. The same disappearing process is
going on now, only more rapidly than formerly because of the
multitude of blues, jazz songs, and others being distributed
throughout the land in millions of phonographic records. One of
the first tasks of this volume is, therefore, to take cognizance of
these formal blues, both in their relation to the workaday native
creations and as an important segment of the Negro’s music and
his contribution to the American scene. In the next chapter we
shall proceed, therefore, to discuss the blues.
 CHAPTER II
THE BLUES: WORKADAY SORROW SONGS
o story of the workaday song life of the Negro can proceed
N far without taking into account the kind of song known as
the blues, for, next to the spirituals, the blues are probably
the Negro’s most distinctive contribution to American art. They
have not been taken seriously, because they have never been
thoroughly understood. Their history needs to be written. The
present chapter is not a complete statement. It merely presents
some of the salient points in the story of the blues and offers
some suggestions as to their rôle in Negro life.
Behind the popular blues songs of today lie the more
spontaneous and naïve songs of the uncultured Negro. Long
before the blues were formally introduced to the public, the
Negro was creating them by expressing his gloomy moods in
song. To be sure, the present use of the term “blues” to designate
a particular kind of popular song is of recent origin, but the use
of the term in Negro song goes much further back, and the blue
or melancholy type of Negro secular song is as old as the
spirituals themselves. The following song might be taken at first
glance for one of the 1926 popular “hits,” but it dates back to the
time of the Civil War.[5]
[5] Allen,
Ware, and Garrison, Slave Songs of the United States, p.
89. This note is appended: “A very good specimen ... of the
strange barbaric songs that one hears upon the Western
steamboats.”
I’m gwine to Alabamy,—Oh,
For to see my mammy,—Ah.
She went from ole Virginny,—Oh,
And I’m her pickaniny,—Ah.