Annotation:My Long Tail Blue

Back to My Long Tail Blue

---

MY LONG TAIL BLUE. American, Air and Dance Tune (2/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Bronner (1987) says the tune is related to a Scottish folk song, without further specifying, however, the song and tune is often credited to George Washington Dixon, who wrote it in the late 1820's. It was printed in Philadelphia in 1837 in a volume entitled The Crow Quadrilles (a reference to Black origins and blackface minstrelsy) 1837, with the title "My Long Tail Blue, Sung by Mr. Dixon, 1834." 'Long-tail blue' refers to fashionable dress coat, but the song depicts one of the stereotypical characters of American minstrelsy, the 'Dandy'. The words begin:

I've come to town to see you all,
I ask you how d'ye do?
I'll sing a song, not very long,
About my long tail blue.

Chorus:
Oh! for the long tail blue.
Oh! for the long tail blue.
I'll sing a song not very long,
About my long tail blue.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Gumbo Chaff (The Complete Preceptor for the Banjo), 1851; p. 13.

Recorded sources:

See also listing at:
Hear the tune played on fretless banjo by Timothy Twiss on youtube.com [1]
See note in the Ballad Index [2]

---