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Rabbit In The Pea-Patch
Category: Dance Song
Source:
Old Mother Hippletoe, Rural and Urban Children’s Songs (New World
Records, Recorded Anthology of American Music) recording
& cover
notes, 1978
Rabbit in the pea-patch, shoo-lye-love (sing sentence 5x)
Shoo-lye love, my darling
You love Miss Sally (substitute
another name;5x)
Shoo-lye-love, my darling
You stole my partner, shoo-lye love (5x)
Shoo-lye-love, my darling
But I’ll get another one, shoo-lye-love (5x)
Shoo-lye-love, my darling
Pretty as the other one, shoo-lye-love (5x)
Shoo-lye-love, my darling
“Rabbit in the Pea-Patch”
is one of a number of rabbit songs that used to be well known among
African Americans, particularly those from the Southern part of the Untied
States. Few urban African
Americans, from the South or the North, know these rabbit songs anymore.
A
“pea patch” is a small garden where peas are grown.
This song doesn’t tell any story.
It is actually just an excuse for dancing.
Another name for couple dance songs such as these is “play
party” songs. Some African American and Anglo-American religious groups
that were opposed to couples dancing permitted couples to hop and skip
around to songs such as this one, because they could consider it a game
instead of a dance. According
to Kate Rinzer, author of the Old Mother Hippletoe record’s notes, this
song was sung in unison by people who were watching the game being played. Boy and girl couples performed this “play party game” by
skipping hand in hand around a lone boy.
The boy would eventually “steal” a girl of his choice from one
of the couples. The person
who is now alone becomes the new “rabbit in the pea-patch”.
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