Lyr Add: Cotton Need A Pickin'

Subject: Cotton Need A Pickin'
From: harpgirl
Date: 27 Aug 02 - 11:14 PM

Cotton Need A Pickin'

as done by Bernice Reagon on Folkways Records, 1965


She says this is a work song for pickin cotton and she got some of the words from Alan Lomax, American Ballads and Folk Songs

You know that plenty of cotton am on there,
Well-a, hundred by the tree,
You know the Yankee signed them papers
And they set them darkies free.

Chorus

You know
Cotton pickin so bad,
Cotton pickin so bad,
Cotton pickin so bad,
I'm gonna pick all over this world.

You know, workin on the cotton track,
Well-a ever since that day,
And I just found out this year
Why I never draw no pay.

Chorus

You know the boss done sole my cotton,
And I asked him for my half
He said, Willie you done chalked [sic] out,
You're half way to debt.

Chorus

You know, the boss told Uncle Billie,
He said, you done done right well,
You done paid your debts with the cotton you picked
So I'll give you seeds to sell.

Chorus

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Cotten Need A Pickin'
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Aug 02 - 01:35 AM

Not found in "American Ballads and Folksongs," nor in "Our Singing Country." Possibly on a recording from Folkways?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Cotten Need A Pickin'
From: masato sakurai
Date: 28 Aug 02 - 08:44 AM

This song is in Lomax's The Folk Songs of North America (p. 531), the title being "Cotton Needs Pickin'".

~Masato

Subject: Lyr Add: COTTON NEEDS PICKIN'
From: masato sakurai
Date: 28 Aug 02 - 09:53 AM

From Alan Lomax, The Folk Songs of North America (Doubleday, 1960, p. 531; with music):

COTTON NEEDS PICKIN'
(Adapted from a Florida song brought to Hampton Institute in Virginia and transcribed by Natalie Curtis-Burlin, Negro Folk Songs, Book 3, page 10ff. Copyright, G Schirmer, 1918. The immediate source was the singer-teacher Charity Bailey.)

CHORUS:
Cotton needs pickin' so bad, (3)
I'm gonna pick all over this world.

1 One twentieth of May morning,
Under that barnyard tree,
Them Yankees read them papers
An' sot them darkies free. (CHO.)

2 I been workin' in a contract
Ever since that day
And just found out this year
Why it didn't pay. (CHO.)

3 When boss sold that cotton
I asked for my half,
He told me I done chopped out
My half with the grass. (CHO.)

4 Boss said, 'Uncle Billy,
I think you done right well
To pay your debts with cotton
And have your seeds to sell.' (CHO.)

5 I sold them seeds this mornin'
For five cents a peck
And bought this here red handkerchief
You see around my neck. (CHO.)

6 Boy, stop goosin'* that cotton,
You better take care,
Make haste, you lazy rascal,
And bring that row from here--Oh! (CHO.)

* carelessly picking

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Cotten Need A Pickin'
From: masato sakurai
Date: 28 Aug 02 - 10:01 AM

Cotton Needs Plowin' So Bad [mp3] sung by Jim Henry "Duck" Horn (DATE: 5/28/1939) at The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip is a variant.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Cotton Need A Pickin'
From: GUEST,lowell blackman
Date: 04 Feb 12 - 09:16 AM

Anyone have Rev. Dan Smith's version?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Cotton Need A Pickin'
From: GUEST,999
Date: 04 Feb 12 - 09:24 AM

Rev Dan Smith's version is all over YouTube as 'Cotton Needs Picking'.