Annotation:Hog Eye an' a 'Tater

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HOG EYE AN' A 'TATER. AKA and see "Hog Eye (2)," "Hog-Eyed Man," "Granny Will Your Dog Bite? (1)" (Pa. floating title), "Fire on the Mountain" (Pa. floating title), "Boating Up Sandy (3)." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, southwestern Pennsylvania. A Dorian ('A' part) & A Mixolydian or Major ('B' part). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. A modal tune that shifts between dorian and mixolydian, and, in some cases, dipping into major tonality. Related to "Hog Eye (1)." "This is not the melody which accompanies the well known and often recorded sea shanty called 'Hog Eye', nor is it the playparty song tune with a similar name known farther south (see Sharp-Karpeles, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, II, No. 250). A somewhat different version, with the parts in reverse order, is in Bayard Coll., No. 288, from Greene County, where the title is simply 'Hog Eye', and has an indecent meaning. In Fayette County, this tune has the following associated rhyme:

I went down to Sally's house
'Bout ten o'clock or later;
All she had to give to me
Was a hog-eye and a tater.

The rhyme accompanying the set known in Greene County is:

As I was going down the street,
A pretty little girl I chanced to meet;
I stepped right up and kissed her sweet,
And asked her for some hog-eye meat. . (Bayard, 1944).

Sources for notated versions: Irvin Yaugher Jr., Mt. Independence, Pennsylvania, October 19, 1943 (learned from his great-uncle); Luther Strong (Kentucky) [Milliner & Koken].

Printed sources: Bayard (Hill Country Tunes), 1944; No. 75. Milliner & Koken (Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes), 2011; p. 299 (appears as "Hog-Eyed Man").

Recorded sources:

See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]

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