Annotation:Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss

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FLY AROUND MY PRETTY LITTLE MISS. AKA and see "Blue Eyed Girl/Blue Eyed Gal," "Blue Eyes Run Me Crazy," "Fare Thee Well My Pretty Little Miss," "Pretty Little Pink," "Susannah Gal (1)/Suzanna Gal (1)," "Western Country." Old-Time, Breakdown and Song. USA; Virginia, North Carolina. D Major: A Major (Silberberg). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. See also related tunes "Fare Thee Well My Pretty Little Miss," "Your Blue Eyes Drive Me Crazy." Among the several early recordings of the tune was a version by the Ashe County, North Carolina, string band Frank Blevins and His Tar Hell Rattlers, a name made up on the spot at the 1927 Columbia recording session in Atlanta for 16-year-old fiddler Frank Blevins, his older brother and guitarist Ed Blevins and banjo player Fred Miller. The band's playing was inspired by a few shots of corn liquor from a convenient jug.

Other versions of the tune go by the alternate titles above. The Bogtrotters band from Galax, Virginia, recorded it for the Library of Congress, while The Hillibillies, a 1920's stringband from the same region, recorded it as "Blue-Eyed Girl" on their 1926 Vocalation release (5017).

Fly around my pretty little miss,
Fly around my daisy;
Fly around my pretty little miss,
You like to drive me crazy.

The variant "Blue-eyed Gal" has similar lyrics, which go:

Chorus:
Fly around, my blue-eyed gal
Fly around my daisy;
Fly around my blue-eyed gal
Dam' near drive me crazy.

The higher up on the cherry tree
The riper grows the cherry
More you hug and kiss the gals
Sooner you will marry.

Cho:

Blue-eyed gal won't marry me
Brown-eyed gal won't have me;
If I can't have the gal I want
Single I will tarry.

Cho:

Eighteen horses in my team
Leader he is blind;
Everywhere I drive that team
Pretty gal on my mind.

Cho:

Possum up in a 'simmon tree
Raccoon on the ground;
Possum up in a 'simmon tree
Shakin' 'simmons down.
*Methodists sang "Almost drives me crazy."

Other verses that can be sung to the tune go:

Her head was like a coffee pot
Her nose was like a spout
Her mouth was like a fireplace
With the ashes all raked out.

Coffee grows on white oak trees
The river flows with brandy
If I had my pretty little miss
I'd feed her sugar candy

Going to get some weevily wheat
I'm going to get some barley
Going to get some weevily wheat
And bake a cake for Charlie

Cheeks as red as a blooming rose,
Eyes of the prettiest brown,
I'm goin' to see my pretty little miss,
Before the sun goes down.

When I was in the field at work,
I sat down and cried,
Studyin' 'bout my blue-eyed girl,
I thought to God I'd died.

There's a ring that's on my true love's hand,
It shines as bright as gold,
I'm goin' to see my pretty little miss,
Even if it rains or snows.

How old are you my pretty little miss
How old are you my honey?
If I don't die of a broken heart
I'll be sixteen next Sunday

Source for notated version: Tony Mates [Silberberg].

Printed sources: Silberberg (Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern), 2002; p. 45.

Recorded sources: Columbia 146-D (78 RPM), 1924, Samantha Bumgarner and Eva Davis (Asheville, N.C.). Folkways Records FA2398, New Lost City Ramblers - "Volume 3" (1961). Front Hall FHR-023, Michael, McCreesh & Campbell - "The Host of the Air" (1980). June Appal 0067, Whitetop Mountain Band - "Seedtime on the Cumberland" (1992). Old Hat Enterprises CD, "Music from the Lost Provinces" (1997). Victor Vi 21645 (78 RPM), The Tenneva Ramblers (appears as "I'm Goin' to Georgia").

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