Negro Work Songs & Calls - Black woman.wmv

Black Woman
Sung by B.B. and six others.

The work rhythm accelerates as the men begin a song which has been a favorite of American railroad gangs. It is recognizable by a series of rhymed images, proverbs, and injunctions, many of a threatening character. The first verse betrays one of the ways in which working-class African Americans accepted and internalized the very color prejudice which confined them to their caste.

I dont want no jet black woman,
O she's too mean, Lawd, she's too mean.
I dont want no jet black woman,
O she's too mean, Lawd, she's too mean.
(repeat)

I got a bulldog, he weighs five hundred,
in my backyard, Lawd, in my backyard.
(repeat)

When he bark, he roar like thunder,
Up in the clouds, Laed, up in the clouds
(repeat)

When you meets my long-haired woman,
just bow your head, Lawd, just bow your head.
(repeat)

I dont want no bald-headed woman. (why?)
O she's too mean, Lawd, O she's too mean.
(repeat)

---

Between years 1933-1959 Alan Lomax recorded black inmates singing on chaingang. There is a theory about these songs and calls that they were sung by the first slaves while they were working and in the prisons these songs continued living after slavery (Black man in a prison at the time was much the same as a slave) From these songs blues is believed to be formed and this is probably the reason why blues was called "devil's music" like rock-n-roll later was.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• alan
• lomax
• south
• chain
• gang
• prison
• inmate
• negro
• work
• songs
• and
• calls
• black
• slave
• history
• music

[TheGelu]

i miss those days

[sambobla]

@TheGelu funny.

[TinaRocks19]

@harpiyon I totally agree - this is amazing stuff. The roots of the blues. The conditions this comes out of almost makes other music seem offensively trite.

[pspjerry]

@TheGelu

lol'd

[staystrongloveee]

@el6caballo6oscuro6 black women's hair doesn't grow as fast and some african women cut their hair bald as a cultural thing I guess

[kianakeino]

this song is the turth!

[el6caballo6oscuro6]

I've heard this done as "bald headed-woman" instead of "jet black woman" - does anyone know the meaning of this?

[harpiyon]

damn, this music is awesome, esp. if you know that they were singing to keep the rhythm (i.e. work more efficiently) & to survive under incredibly hard conditions: hard work every day, no good food, not much sleep, the prison guards & dogs watching them all day, no women for many years. it must have been hell.

truly awesome that something so beautiful comes out of this.