View source for Annotation:Rock the Cradle Joe (1)

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{{TuneAnnotation
|f_tune_annotation_title= https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Rock_the_Cradle_Joe_(1) >
|f_annotation='''ROCK THE CRADLE JOE [1].'''  American Reel. USA; Patrick & Franklin Counties, Virginia; North Carolina, West Virginia. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Most modern “old-time revival” versions of the tune come from the fiddle playing of John Watts “Babe” Spangler (1882-) of Meadows of Dan, southwestern Virginia, who recorded it privately in the late 1940’s [https://www.oldtownschool.org/fiddle/fun/rockthecradlejoe3492.mp3], accompanied by his brother Dudley on guitar. The following ditty is sometimes sung to the tune in old-time tradition:
<blockquote>  
[[File:spangler.jpg|400px|thumb|right|J.W. Spangler]]
('B' strain) ''Rock the cradle Lucy, rock the cradle low,''<br>
''Rock the cradle Lucy, Rock the Cradle Joe.''<br>
<br>
''Rock the cradle Lucy, rock the cradle high,''<br>
''Rock the cradle Lucy, don't let that baby cry.'' ... [Kuntz]]<br>
<br>
('A' strain) ''Can't get up, can't get up,''<br>
''Can't get up in the morning;''<br>
''What we gonna do if the baby cries?''<br>
''Rock the cradle Joe.''<br>
<br>
('B' strain) ''Rock the cradle, rock the cradle,''<br>
''Rock the cradle Joe;''<br>
''Rock the cradle, rock the cradle,''<br>
''Rock it nice and slow.''    ...  [Johnson]<br>
<br>
''What’ll we do when the baby cries''<br>
''I don’t know;''<br>
''What’ll we do when the baby cries''<br>
''Rock that cradle Joe.''<br> 
</blockquote>
Variations of the words, however, were in tradition as “Uncle Joe Cut Off His Toe,” a nursery rhyme which has variants with verses which also resemble some of the “Old Joe Clark” verses:
<blockquote>
''Uncle Joe cut off his toe''<br>
''And hung it up to dry;''<br>
''The ladies began to laugh''<br>
''And Joe began to cry.''<br>
<br>
Chorus:<br>
''Rock the cradle, rock the cradle,''<br>
''Rock the cradle, Joe.''<br>
'' 'I will not rock, I shall not rock,''<br>
''For the baby is not mine.' ''   .....[Version ‘C’, Number 97, The Frank C. Brown Collection Of North Carolina Folklore, Volume 3]
</blockquote>
<br>
Folklorist Lani Herrmann finds a similar verse in the biography of Jennie Devlin (1865-1952) by her granddaughter Katharine D. Newman (Urbana, IL: Univ of Illinois Press, 1995; "an Illini Book"). Allan Lomax recorded this version as a recitation by “Grandma Deb,” one of the names by which Jennie Devlin was known. It seems to echo the North Carolina version:
<blockquote>
''O, rock the cradle, John,''<br>
''O, rock the cradle, John,''<br>
''There's many a man''<br>
''Rocks another man's child''<br>
''When he thinks he's rocking his own.''<br>
</blockquote>
A song entitled "Rocke the Cradle, John" "was licensed by Laurence Price in 1631 in England, and there is an Irish song called "The Old Man Rocking the Cradle," about a man left at home while his wife goes out on the town. These are not related in either words or music, but do show that the man-rocking-cradle meme was an early and widespread one. 
<br>
<br>
See also the related part second strain of "[[Sally Ann (2)]].”
|f_source_for_notated_version=Alan Block (N.H.) [Spadaro]; Jay Ungar (West Hurley, New York) [Kuntz]; Babe Sengler (Va.) [Phillips].
|f_printed_sources=Brody ('''Fiddler’s Fakebook'''), 1983; p. 232. Johnson ('''The Kitchen Musician No. 2: Occasional Collection of Old-Timey Fiddle Tunes for Hammer Dulcimer, Fiddle, etc.'''), 1982 (revised 1988 & 2003); p. 10. Kuntz ('''Ragged but Right'''), 1987; pp. 333-334. Silberberg ('''Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern'''), 2002; p. 132. '''Sing Out''', vol. 36, No. 2, August 1991; p. 77. Songer ('''Portland Collection'''), 1997; p. 169. Spadaro ('''10 Cents a Dance'''), 1980; p. 16. 
|f_recorded_sources= Tennvale 004, James Leva and Bruce Molsky  - "An Anthology.” County 201, The Old Virginia Fiddlers - "Old Time Fiddle, Patrick County, Va., Rare Recordings 1948-49” (1977. Various artists). June Appal 015, Plank Road String Band - "Vocal and Instrumental Blend.” Kicking Mule 213, David Winston - "Southern Clawhammer Banjo.”
|f_see_also_listing=Jane Keefer’s Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [http://www.ibiblio.org/keefer/r07.htm#Rocthcrj]<br>
See the standard notation transcription at taterjoes.com [http://www.taterjoes.com/fiddle/RockTheCradleJoe.pdf]<br>
Hear Roger Howell's version, learned from Babe Spangler [http://dla.acaweb.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/Mars/id/786], and the 1940's field recording of the Spanglers playing the tune [https://www.oldtownschool.org/fiddle/fun/rockthecradlejoe3492.mp3]<br>
Hear Roane County, W.Va., fiddler Franklin George's (1928-2017) 2008 field recording at Slippery Hill [https://www.slippery-hill.com/recording/rock-cradle-joe]<br>
}}