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Green Sally Up
Here's my transcription of the words to this song:
Green Sally up.
Green Sally down.
last one squat got to till {touch? tear?} the ground.
Ole {Oh?} Miss Lucy dead and gone.
Left me hear to weep and moan.
If you hate it fold your arms.
If you love it clap your hands.
**
Electronic Message from a
Cocojams' Reader:
"Hello, perhaps you could help me with the meaning of the lyrics of
the song "Flower" that was recently remade by the musician Moby. The words
of the first verse: "Green sally up and green sally down, lift and squat
gotta tear the ground. Old miss lucy's dead and gone, left me here to weep
and moan." My questions: Why is the song called "Flower"? Who or what is
"green sally"? Is the song a sort of children play or ring game song?
Thank you very much for your help!
-Mechtild F. ; 10/3/2006
Editor:
Hello, Mechtild F. Thanks for visiting Cocojams!
As to the meaning of "Green Sally Up", and why the song is called "Flower"
, here are excerpts of the comments I wrote on this Mudcat Discussion
Forum thread:
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=6108#1267287
"Wade In The Water/Green Sally Up "
"Green Sally Up" is
an African American children's game song is included on Disc 4 of Alan
Lomax's Sounds of the South, A Musical Journey from the Georgia Sea
Isles to the Mississippi Delta. {Atlantic 787496-2; 1993}
[My thanks to Tony Norman,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist, for giving me a the four disc Sounds of
the South CD].
The CD notes for "Green Sally Up" indicate that this is "a black
children's singing game performed by a group of women in Como, Miss. The
slaves have passed on to a modern generation of children a whole
literature of children's songs which resemble the familiar English Ring
Around the Rosie, but which were gayer and more syncopated."
-snip-
The same verses are repeated again and again. The tempo of this song is
rather slow. The only musical accompaniment for this song seems to be
handclapping and foot stomping.
"Green Sally Up” may have been a
corn husking dance song that was composed by African Americans in the 19th
century or earlier. However, I think that it's more likely that this song
originated as an African American children's game song. “Green
Sally” may refer to an ear of green corn. But if I were a betting woman,
I'd bet that "Green" Sally
referred to a young, naive, inexperienced woman. In the context of the
song, it's possible that the group could have been cautioning any
participant and listener not to be naive enough to believe in the promises
of their master or missus. In that regard, the "Green Sally Up" lyrics
would have echoed the same bitter themes as those of "My Ole Master
Promised Me" {when he died he'd set me free/ My ole Master dead and
gone/left Bre'r Washington hilling up corn}" Source: Dorothy
Scarborough "On The Trail Of Negro Songs {originally published in
1925}.
In
the 18th and 19th century America, "Miss" was a title that was reserved for
White
women. In this song "Miss Lucy" was probably the slave master's wife.
but she could have been another female family member.
"Old Miss Lucy dead and gone” refers to Miss
Lucy's death. The lines “If you hate it/if you love it” etc. were probably
a coded way for enslaved people to share their true feelings about their
Mistress’ death. If Miss Lucy was a mean ole woman who left the slaves to
weep and moan {over their terrible hardships not Miss Lucy's passing}, then there
was bound to have been whole lot of handclapping going on when this song was sung.
By the way, in the line
"last one squat got to till {touch? tear?} the ground",
“to squat” means to "stoop down".
**
Another version of "'Green Sally Up" is found in Step It Down, a
book on African American children's songs from the Georgia Seal Isle that was co-authored
by Bessie Jones and Bess Lomax-Hawes. That version of "Green Sally Up"
seems to be a much more
syncopated. song that includes a number of floating
verses that are found in children's rhymes such as "Mary Mack":
Green Sally up, Green Sally down
Green Sally bake her possum brown.
Asked my mama for fifteen cents
to see the elephant jump the fence.
He jumped so high, he touched the sky
He never got back till the fourth of July.
You see that house upon that hill,
That's where me and my baby live.
Oh the rabbit in the hash come a-stepping in the dash,
With his long-tailed coat and his beaver on.
-snip-
Bess Lomax-Hawes indicates that "The last couplet 'Oh, the rabbit in the hash'
may be repeated over and over, either at a steady tempo or speeded up as much as
three times faster. The 'Green Sally" couplet functions as a refrain, and may be
put in anywhere ou want it". Also, the book relates that one of the Sea
Islanders, Peter Davis, had said that he always said "Rabbit in the hatchet".
This seems to be an example of folk etymology..
Unfortunately, I don't have a recording of the Step It Down version, but its
description leaves me to believe that its much faster than the Sounds of the South
version.
**
A contemporary version of "Green Sally Up" was recorded in 2000 by Moby and titled
"Flowers" .
Listen to a song clip of "Flowers" by
clicking
http://www.amazon.ca/Gone-60-Seconds-Original-Soundtrack/dp/B00004TM2D
Also, see
http://www.lyricsdepot.com/moby/flower.html
Here's a link to a
YouTube music video of that song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDKkoH1ckHo Note that video is
erroneously titled "Bring Sally Up."
Also, here's a website
about Moby's song "Flowers" {"Green Sally Up"} that include my theories
about the meaning of those lyrics: :
http://everything2.com/title/FLOWER
**
Here's a game song
that I wrote which was inspired by the game song "Green Sally Up":
Green Color Up
Group: Green
color up.
Green color down.
Green color all around the town.
If you have on green, just raise your hand.
If you do not, just fold your arms.
Caller: Red!
Group Red color up.
Red
color down
Red color all around the town.
If you have on red, just raise your hand.
If you do not, just fold your arms.
(The
caller calls out another color. People wearing that color come into the
circle, the others quickly leave and the group repeats the song)
© Azizi
Powell 1997
I introduced the song "Green Sally Up" in 1997 to children ages 5-12
years old who participated in an after-school group that I had started.
The purpose of that group, Alafia Children's Ensemble, was to explore the
creative & performing arts potential of traditional, contemporary, and
original African American children's game songs and rhymes. For what ever
reasons, the children in that group didn't like the words & the movements
to the song "Green Sally Up" so I kept thinking about ways to update it.
Finally, at one group session, Carol Williams, an Alafia parent and staff
person suggested changing the words of the song to refer to different
colors. I played with that idea, and this song is the result. And I'm
pleased to say that this song "works", and children like its easy to
remember words and movements. “Green Color Up” is a singing game that
doesn’t have any winners or losers. It is a good way to help young
children learn their colors and is a good way to help develop and
reinforce group spirit and interaction skills. Besides, it is fun to play!
Here are the directions for playing "Green Color Up":
Participants form a circle. Participants can be mixed ages of boys and girls as well as adults. Participants don’t hold hands.
Someone is designated as the leader. The leader’s job is to randomly call out the name of a color each
time the song is repeated. The
only color whose call-out order is fixed, is “green” (unless no one
present is wearing green). The
leader may walk around the group while the song is being performed or may
join the group forming the ring of the circle (the outer part of the
circle).
When the leader calls out the color “green”, all those who are
wearing “green” can either go into the middle of the circle or stay where
they are in the circle’s ring.
Everyone then sings the song together.
Everyone claps their hands while they are singing and performs the
motions that the song’s words call for (for example: bending down when
the song says “down”, stretching your arms up when the song says
“up”, and turning around when the song says “around”}.
When the leader calls out another color, those people in the middle
quickly rejoin the circle’s ring. At
the same time, people who are wearing the new color that the leader has
just called enter the middle of the circle.
The game
usually ends with the color green.
-snip-
Portions of these comments are included in Cocojams' Games Children's Play
page.
click here to submit examples or
commentary about children's games. Also, please share your opinions of the
"Green Sally Up" song.
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