View source for Annotation:Been to the East Been to the West

{{TuneAnnotation
|f_annotation='''BEEN TO THE EAST, BEEN TO THE WEST'''. AKA and see "[[Great Big Yam Potatoes]]." American, Reel (cut time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Phillips): AA'B (Milliner-Koken): AABB (Kuntz, Songer).  The fast-paced reel-like song/tune is from the Leake County Revellers, recorded on a Columbia Records 78 RPM in 1928. The Revelers sang these words to the first strain:
<Blockquote>
''Well, I've been to the east and I've been to the west,''<br />
''And I've been to Alabama;''<br />
''Prettiest girl I ever did see,''<br />
''And her name was Susianna.''<br />
<br />
''Prettiest little girl I ever did see,''<br />
''Lives in Alabama;''<br />
''Wanna know her name, I'll tell you what it would be,''<br />
''Her name is Susianna.]''<br />
<br />
''Hawk said, "I'll find me something for to eat,''<br />
''Gonna 'light on the yellowhammer."''<br />
</blockquote>
Versions of the above lyric substantially predate the Leake County Revelers, however, and similar rhymes can be found in play-party songs collected in the late 19th and early 20th century, and in the black-face minstrel song "Brack [sic] Eyed Susianna"[https://www.loc.gov/resource/sm1846.411160.0/?sp=2], published in 1846 in Philadelphia by A. Foit, as sung by the Nightingale Serenaders. The chorus to the song (sans dialect spelling) goes:
<blockquote>
''I been to the east, I been to the west,''<br />
''I been to South Carolina;''<br />
''And of all the gals I love the best,''<br />
''Is my black-ey'd Susianna.''<br>
</blockquote>
The phrase 'been to the east, been to the west' is a ballad meme and variants can be traced to Child balladry. "Rare Willie, Drowned in Yarrow; or, The Water o' Gowrie" (Child No. 215) contains the verse:
<blockquote>
''She sought him east, she sought him west,''<br>
''She sought him broad and narrow,''<br>
''Till in the clifting of a crag''<br>
''She found him drowned in Yarrow.''<br>
</blockquote> 
Musically, "Been to the East" is closely related to the West Virginia tune "[[Horney Ewe (The)]]" AKA "[[Hornio]]" and Melvin Wine's "[[Going Down to Georgie-O]]." "[[Goin' to Chatanooga]]" is also similar in the first strain. 
|f_source_for_notated_version=Liz Slade (Yorktown, New York) [Kuntz]; Mary Lea [Phillips].
|f_printed_sources=Clare Milliner & Walt Koken ('''Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes'''), 2011; p. 28. Phillips ('''Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1'''), 1994; p. 29.
Songer ('''Portland Collection'''), 1997; p. 26.
|f_recorded_sources=Bake Tone Recordings, The Freight Hoppers - "Mile Marker" (2010). Columbia 15318 (78 RPM), Leake County Revelers (1928). Varrick VR -038, Yankee Ingenuity - "Heatin' Up the Hall" (1989).
|f_tune_annotation_title=https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Been_to_the_East_Been_to_the_West >
}}
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