Blue Tail Fly

"Jimmy Crack Corn (Blue Tail Fly)"
Song by Virginia Minstrels
Published	1840s
Genre	Minstrel, folk
Writer(s)	Traditional

"Jimmy Crack Corn" or "Blue Tail Fly" is an American song which first became popular during the rise of blackface minstrelsy in the 1840s through performances by the Virginia Minstrels. It regained currency as a folk song in the 1940s at the beginning of the American folk music revival and has since become a popular children's song. Over the years, several variants have appeared.

Most versions include some idiomatic African English, although sanitized General American versions now predominate. The basic narrative remains intact. On the surface, the song is a black slave's lament over his white master's death in a horseriding accident. The song, however, can be—and is—interpreted as having a subtext of celebration about that death and of the slaves having contributed to it through deliberate negligence or even deniable action.

When I was young I us'd to wait
On Massa and hand him de plate;
Pass down de bottle when he git dry,
And bresh away de blue tail fly.
 Jim crack corn I don't care,
 Jim crack corn I don't care,
 Jim crack corn I don't care,
 Ole Massa gone away.

Den arter dinner massa sleep,
He bid dis niggar vigil keep;
An' when he gwine to shut his eye,
He tell me watch de blue tail fly.
 Jim crack corn &c.

An' when he ride in de arternoon,
I foller wid a hickory broom;
De poney being berry shy
When bitten by de blue tail fly.
 Jim crack corn &c.

One day he rode aroun' de farm,
De flies so numerous dey did swarm;
One chance to bite 'im on the thigh,
De debble take dat blu tail fly.
 Jim crack corn &c.

De poney run, he jump an' pitch,
An' tumble massa in de ditch;
He died, an' de jury wonder'd why
De verdic was de blue tail fly.
 Jim crack corn &c.

Dey laid 'im under a 'simmon tree,
His epitaph am dar to see:
'Beneath this stone I'm forced to lie,
All by de means ob de blue tail fly.
 Jim crack corn &c.

Ole massa gone, now let 'im rest,
Dey say all tings am for de best;
I nebber forget till de day I die,
Ole massa an' dat blue tail fly.
 Jim crack corn &c.

De hornet gets in your eyes an nose,
De skeeter bites y'e through your close,
De gallinipper sweeten high,
But wusser yet de blue tail fly.
 Jim crack corn &c.

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Wikipedia