 | Dixie song: Encyclopedia II - Dixie song - Lyrics
Dixie song - Lyrics
The lyrics of "Dixie" reflect the mood of the United States in the late 1850s toward growing abolitionist sentiment. The song presents the point of view, common to minstrelsy at the time, that slavery was overall a positive institution. The pining slave had been used in minstrel tunes since the early 1850s, including Emmett's "I Ain't Got Time to Tarry" and "Johnny Roach". The fact that "Dixie" and its precursors are dance tunes only further makes light of the subject.[8] In short, "Dixie" makes the case, more strongly than any previous minstrel tune had, that slaves belong in bondage.[9] This is accomplished through the song's protagonist, who, in pseudo-black dialect, implies that despite his freedom, he is homesick for the plantation of his birth:
I wish I was in de land ob cotton,
Old times dar am not forgotten;
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
In Dixie Land whar I was born in,
Early on one frosty mornin,
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
The remaining verses drift into the common minstrel idiom of a comical plantation scenario, "supposedly [depicting] the gayer side of life for slaves on Southern plantations":[10]
Old Missus marry "Will-de-weaber,"
Willium was a gay deceaber;
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
But when he put his arm around'er,
He smilled as fierce as a forty-pound'er,
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
The final verse mixes nonsense and dance steps with the freed-slave scenario:
Dar's buck-wheat cake an 'Ingen' batter,
Makes you fat or a little fatter;
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
Den hoe it down an scratch your grabble,
To Dixie land I'm bound to trabble.
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.[11]
The lyrics use many common phrases found in minstrel tunes of the day—"I wish I was in . . ." dates to at least "Clare de Kitchen" (early 1830s), and "Away down south in . . ." appears in many more songs, including Emmett's "I'm Gwine ober de Mountain" (1843). The second stanza clearly echoes "Gumbo Chaff" from the 1830s: "Den Missus she did marry Big Bill de weaver / Soon she found out he was a gay deceiver."[12] The final stanza rewords portions of Emmett's own "De Wild Goose-Nation": "De tarapin he thot it was time for to trabble / He screw aron his tail and begin to scratch grabble."[13] Even the phrase "Dixie's land" had been used in Emmett's "Johnny Roach" and "I Ain't Got Time to Tarry", both first performed earlier in 1859.
As with other minstrel material, "Dixie" entered common circulation among blackface performers, and many of them added their own verses or altered the song in other ways. Emmett himself adopted the tune for a pseudo-African American spiritual in the 1870s or 1880s. The chorus changed to:
I wish I was in Canaan
Oaber dar—Oaber dar,
In Canaan's lann de color'd man
Can lib an die in cloaber
Oaber dar—Oaber dar,
Oaber dar in de lann ob Canaan.[14]
Both Union and Confederate composers produced war versions of the song during the American Civil War. These variants standardized the spelling and made the song more militant, injecting into the lyrics specific references to the conflict or to Northern or Southern pride. This Confederate verse by Albert Pike is representative:
Southrons! hear your country call you!
Up! lest worse than death befall you! . . .
Hear the Northern thunders mutter! . . .
Northern flags in South wind flutter; . . .
Send them back your fierce defiance!
Stamp upon the cursed alliance![15]
Compare Frances J. Crosby's Union lyrics:
On! ye patriots to the battle,
Hear Fort Moultrie's cannon rattle!
Then away, then away, then away to the fight!
Go meet those Southern traitors,
With iron will.
And should your courage falter, boys,
Remember Bunker Hill.
Hurrah! Hurrah! The Stars and Stripes forever!
Hurrah! Hurrah! Our Union shall not sever![16]
"The New Dixie!: The True 'Dixie' for Northern Singers" takes a different approach, turning the original song on its head:
Den I'm glad I'm not in Dixie
Hooray! Hooray!
In Yankee land I'll took my stand,
Nor lib no die in Dixie[17]
Soldiers on both sides wrote endless parody versions of the song. Often these discussed the banalities of camp life: "Pork and cabbage in the pot, / It goes in cold and comes out hot," or, "Vinegar put right on red beet, / It makes them always fit to eat". Others were more nonsensical: "Way down South in the fields of cotton, / Vinegar shoes and paper stockings".[18]
Aside from its being rendered in standard English, the chorus was the only section not regularly altered, even for parodies:
Den I wish I was in Dixie, Hooray! Hooray!
In Dixie Land, I'll took my stand,
To lib an die in Dixie,
Away, Away, Away down south in Dixie,
Away, Away, Away down south in Dixie.[19]
Other related archives10 April, 11 February, 18 February, 1859, 1860, 1861, 1865, 20 December, 21 June, 26 June, 30 May, 4 April, Abraham Lincoln's, African American, African American English Vernacular, African Americans, Albert Pike, All My Trials, America the Beautiful, American, American Civil Rights Movement, American Civil War, American Legion, American popular culture, An American Trilogy, Battle Hymn of the Republic, Billie Holliday, Boston, Bow Wow Wow, Bryant's Minstrels, Buckley's Serenaders, Charleston, Cincinnati, Circumstantial evidence, Civil War, Clare de Kitchen, Confederacy, Confederate, Confederate Veterans' Association, Confederate flag, Dan Emmett, Daniel Decatur Emmett, De Wild Goose-Nation, Dixie, Elvis Presley, English, Eubie Blake, Firth, Pond & Co., Foghorn Leghorn, Fort Sumter, Frances J. Crosby's, General Lee, Georgia, Georgia Institute of Technology, Gumbo Chaff, Henry Hotze, Henry Throop Stanton, I Ain't Got Time to Tarry, I'm Going Home to Dixie, I'm Gwine ober de Mountain, Jefferson Davis, John Brougham, John Church Company, John Hill Hewitt, Johnny Roach, Ken Burns, Knox County, London, Manhattan, Maryland, Mickey Newbury's, Mount Vernon, Mrs. John Wood, Nanjemoy, New Orleans, New York, New York Tribune, Noble Sissle, Ohio, Old South, Owl Creek Quickstep, P. P. Werlein, Po-ca-hon-tas, or The Gentle Savage, Robert E. Lee, Scotch-Irish, Scottish, Seely Simpkins Jig, Shuffle Along, Snowden Family, Snowden Family Band, South Carolina, Southern United States, St. Andrew's Hall, Strange Fruit, The Citadel, The Dukes of Hazzard, The Etude, The New York Clipper, Tom Fletcher, Tulane University, Union, United Confederate Veterans, United Daughters of the Confederacy, United Sons of Confederate Veterans, United States Army Band, University of Mississippi, University of Virginia, Virginia, Washington Post, We Shall Overcome, Whistling 'Dixie', William Rehnquist, William Shakespeare Hays, Yankee, Yankee Doodle, abolitionist, anthem, arranger, bands, black dialect, blackface, broadsides, burlesque, common time, copyrighted, copyrighting, dance tunes, fiddle, fife, fight song, folk song, folk tune, inauguration, irony, jig, lynching, manuscript, measures, melodic, minstrels, minstrelsy, musical, musicologist, national anthem, newspapers, nonsense, parody, plantation, popular American song, quickstep, quotation, racist, refrain, sectionalism, segregation, sheet music, slang, slavery, soloist, songbooks, spiritual, stanza, stevedore, surrender, tempo, variety show, verse, walkaround
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Lyrics", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
