Meaning of: Stubbed my toe, ... Cotton Eye Joe
Maureen Goldman
"Harry den Dekker" <har...@multidecom.nl> wrote:
> This is from a song by Michelle Shocked.
>
> Went to a corn field, stubbed my toe
> looked for the doctor, Cotton Eye Joe
>
> "Stubbing your toe" is a reference to becoming pregnant. True?
> But who is Cotton Eye Joe?
As far as I know, "Cotton Eye Joe" is an American folk song, the sort
of thing that might sung by field workers to maintain a rhythm. No
reference to pregnancy that I can see in those words. If that were
the case, then I'd expect the midwife to be called, not the doctor.
Or... I could be totally wrong.
--
Maureen Goldman
To reply, please remove fog.
Harry den Dekker
Curtis Cameron
> of thing that might sung by field workers to maintain a rhythm. No
> reference to pregnancy that I can see in those words. If that were
> the case, then I'd expect the midwife to be called, not the doctor.
I have one of her earlier CD's, but I'm not familiar with this song.
The rhythm of the words closely matches the rhythm of the folk song
"Cotton-Eyed Joe". That song goes something like this:
I'd have been married a long time ago
If it had not been for the Cotton-eyed Joe
Where did he come from, where did he go?
Where did he come from, Cotton-eyed Joe?
So is the Shocked song sung to the same tune? This would explain that
she might use both the melody and a rhyming phrase in her song.
-Curtis Cameron, banjo player
earle jones
In article <33F469...@remove.airmail.net>, Curtis Cameron
<curt...@remove.airmail.net> wrote:
>Maureen Goldman wrote:
>>
>> "Harry den Dekker" <har...@multidecom.nl> wrote:
>>
>> > This is from a song by Michelle Shocked.
>> >
>> > Went to a corn field, stubbed my toe
>> > looked for the doctor, Cotton Eye Joe
--
That song dates back to *at least* the 1920s or '30s. One of our famous
readers here is Sam Hinton. He would remember the origins, I am sure.
earle
--
__
__/\_\
/\_\/_/
\/_/\_\ earle
\/_/ jones
Robert Teeter
Curtis Cameron (curt...@remove.airmail.net) wrote:
: Maureen Goldman wrote:
: >
: > "Harry den Dekker" <har...@multidecom.nl> wrote:
: >
: > > This is from a song by Michelle Shocked.
: > >
: > > Went to a corn field, stubbed my toe
: > > looked for the doctor, Cotton Eye Joe
: > > "Stubbing your toe" is a reference to becoming pregnant. True?
: > > But who is Cotton Eye Joe?
: >
: > As far as I know, "Cotton Eye Joe" is an American folk song, the sort
: > of thing that might sung by field workers to maintain a rhythm. No
: > reference to pregnancy that I can see in those words. If that were
: > the case, then I'd expect the midwife to be called, not the doctor.
: I have one of her earlier CD's, but I'm not familiar with this song.
: The rhythm of the words closely matches the rhythm of the folk song
: "Cotton-Eyed Joe". That song goes something like this:
: I'd have been married a long time ago
: If it had not been for the Cotton-eyed Joe
: Where did he come from, where did he go?
: Where did he come from, Cotton-eyed Joe?
: So is the Shocked song sung to the same tune? This would explain that
: she might use both the melody and a rhyming phrase in her song.
I saw Michelle Shocked in concert last month. She sang
the original "Cotton-Eyed Joe." She said that when she was a
young girl, she wondered about the meaning of the song. Her
father told her it was about nothing, but she put together the
line about the doctor -- I can't quote it now -- and the line
"I'd have been married a long time ago" and came to her own
conclusions.
--
Bob Teeter (rte...@netcom.com) | http://www.wco.com/~rteeter/
"On the Internet, we are not all wise children" -- E. G.-M.
"Government may not reduce the adult population to only what is fit for
children" -- U.S. Supreme Court, Reno v. ACLU, June 26, 1997
Harry den Dekker
The song I heard the words in is Prodigal Daughter from the album Arkansas
Traveller. Having found the complete set of lyrics it makes much more
sense. Apparently Cotton-Eye Joe is an abortion doctor. "Stubbing your toe"
does mean getting pregnant (being knocked up). There is also a reference to
"sowing one's oats".
Check out http://www.shellshock.com/atlyrics.html for complete lyrics of
this album.
As for the musical qualities of Michelle's version vs any original, I don't
know. As someone pointed out, there was a recent version by a group called
the Rednecks, which may have used different words. It might be fun to trace
it all back, but that's bait for another news group.
Harry
Curtis Cameron <curt...@remove.airmail.net> wrote in article
<33F469...@remove.airmail.net>...
> Maureen Goldman wrote:
> >
> > "Harry den Dekker" <har...@multidecom.nl> wrote:
> >
> > > This is from a song by Michelle Shocked.
> > >
> > > Went to a corn field, stubbed my toe
> > > looked for the doctor, Cotton Eye Joe
> > >
> > > "Stubbing your toe" is a reference to becoming pregnant. True?
> > > But who is Cotton Eye Joe?
> >
> > As far as I know, "Cotton Eye Joe" is an American folk song, the sort
> > of thing that might sung by field workers to maintain a rhythm. No
> > reference to pregnancy that I can see in those words. If that were
> > the case, then I'd expect the midwife to be called, not the doctor.
>
> I have one of her earlier CD's, but I'm not familiar with this song.
> The rhythm of the words closely matches the rhythm of the folk song
> "Cotton-Eyed Joe". That song goes something like this:
>
> I'd have been married a long time ago
> If it had not been for the Cotton-eyed Joe
>
> Where did he come from, where did he go?
> Where did he come from, Cotton-eyed Joe?
>
> So is the Shocked song sung to the same tune? This would explain that
> she might use both the melody and a rhyming phrase in her song.
>
> -Curtis Cameron, banjo player
>
Maureen Goldman
rte...@netcom.com (Robert Teeter) wrote:
> I saw Michelle Shocked in concert last month. She sang
> the original "Cotton-Eyed Joe." She said that when she was a
> young girl, she wondered about the meaning of the song. Her
> father told her it was about nothing, but she put together the
> line about the doctor -- I can't quote it now -- and the line
> "I'd have been married a long time ago" and came to her own
> conclusions.
I wonder what she would make of the line in the song about "Shortnin'
Bread":
"Go get the doctor - the doctor is dead
(Mammy's little baby loves shortnin' bread.)"
Gotta wonder about these doctors appearing in folk songs. I wouldn't
think that visits to medical doctors would be a common experience for
most people, but I can't think of any other meaning.
Donna Richoux
Harry den Dekker <har...@nospam.multidecom.nl> wrote:
> The song I heard the words in is Prodigal Daughter from the album Arkansas
> Traveller. Having found the complete set of lyrics it makes much more
> sense. Apparently Cotton-Eye Joe is an abortion doctor. "Stubbing your toe"
> does mean getting pregnant (being knocked up).
First of all, the traditional words of Cotton Eyed Joe, however new or
old they may be, can be found at Digital Tradition,
<http://www.deltablues.com/dbsearch.html> As you said (but this might
not be clear to all readers), the "stubbed my toe" line is the Michelle
Shocked song "Prodigal Daughter." They do not appear in the song "Cotton
Eyed Joe."
If the folk song makes any sense at all, Joe is an attractive black man
who got the singer's mother pregnant -- i.e., he is the true father of
the singer, who suffers by being of mixed race. But I've never seen
these words before, and I don't know how authentic they are. It is not
in any of my dozen songbooks. Some old songs with unpleasant racial and
sexual overtones were deliberately kept out of folksong collections
(sometimes the country folk refused to sing them to those nice young
scholars from the city). This one is more remembered as a fiddle tune,
and other sets of words have been set to it.
I don't know why you cast C.E. Joe in role of the abortionist. I suppose
you are literally translating Shocked's line, "called for the doctor,
Cotton Eyed Joe." However, in the song she mimics, C.E.J. is a recurrent
rhyming refrain, and it need not be meaningful. The role of the baby's
father would be a little more appropriate, when comparing Shocked's song
to the folk song (not that she necessarily knew the original song, you
understand).
However, here's the question that got me started on this. Can you, or
anyone else, cite a reference supporting your claim that "stubbed my
toe" means "got pregnant"? I've never heard it, and although goodness
there are probably hundreds of obscure and obsolete references to
becoming pregnant, I would feel better if you could back this up with
something other than mere assertion. If you, say, grew up in the US and
heard it often, well, OK. Or do you mean it is Shocked being poetic, not
an established figure of speech?
My mother looked up "stub" and "toe" in her copies of the "Dictionary of
American English" Univ Chicago Press, 1940, and "Dictionary of American
Slang," edited by Wentworth & Flexner, pub Crowell, 1960, and found
nothing out of the ordinary.
I assume that the normal meaning of the phrase in the US, "to strike
(one's toe) against something while walking or running" is understood in
other English-speaking areas. Looks to me like an easy rhyme with "Joe,"
that's all.
Best wishes --- Donna Richoux
K. Harper
Truly Donovan wrote:
>
> Maureen Goldman wrote:
>
> > I wonder what she would make of the line in the song about "Shortnin'
> > Bread":
> >
> > "Go get the doctor - the doctor is dead
> > (Mammy's little baby loves shortnin' bread.)"
>
> lines as "Go to the doctor -- the doctor said/Mammy's little baby loves
> shortnin' bread."
Three little children*
Lying in bed--
Two are sick and the other 'most dead.
Ran for the doctor and the doctor said,
Give those children some short'nin' bread.
*pronounced "chillun"
I've never had the good fortune (???) to hear the Nelson Eddy version of this
song, which was apparently so awful that a comedy film of the '70s set in a
futuristic dictatorship showed political prisoners being made to listen to it as
a kind of torture. (_Sleeper_?)
Katherine Harper
Department of English
Bowling Green State University
Truly Donovan
Maureen Goldman wrote:
> I wonder what she would make of the line in the song about "Shortnin'
> Bread":
>
> "Go get the doctor - the doctor is dead
> (Mammy's little baby loves shortnin' bread.)"
Okay, which of us has the mondegreen here? I've always known those
lines as "Go to the doctor -- the doctor said/Mammy's little baby loves
shortnin' bread."
--
Truly Donovan
reply to truly at lunemere dot com
Richard M. Alderson III
In article <33F9B8...@bgnet.bgsu.edu> "K. Harper" <kha...@bgnet.bgsu.edu>
writes:
> Three little children*
> Lying in bed--
> Two are sick and the other 'most dead.
> Ran for the doctor and the doctor said,
> Give those children some short'nin' bread.
>*pronounced "chillun"
>I've never had the good fortune (???) to hear the Nelson Eddy version of this
>song,
From _Willie, the Singing Whale_. The lyric (which I've been able to sing
since I was about 3 years old) is
Three little chillun, lyin' in bed,
One of 'em sick and t'others mos' dead.
Send for the doctuh, de doctuh said
"Feed dem chilluns on shortnin' bread!"
Not terribly PC, is it?
--
Rich Alderson You know the sort of thing that you can find in any dictionary
of a strange language, and which so excites the amateur philo-
logists, itching to derive one tongue from another that they
know better: a word that is nearly the same in form and meaning
as the corresponding word in English, or Latin, or Hebrew, or
what not.
--J. R. R. Tolkien,
alde...@netcom.com _The Notion Club Papers_