Annotation:Little Betty Brown (2)
X:1 T:Little Betty Brown [2] S:Milton Brown & His Musical Brownies M:C| L:1/8 Q:"Fast" D:Proper Records P133-1336, Milton Brown & His Musical Brownies (1935) F:https://www.slippery-hill.com/recording/little-betty-brown Z:Transcribed by Andrew Kuntz K:D (=f2|^f)afe fedd|fd[fe][fe]- [d2f2](=f2|^f)afe dABd|A4- AGFE| DEFA d2d2|ddfd edBd|ABdd fdee|[d6f6]:| |:D2-|D2F2A2F2|ABdf edBA|d3A (B[F3A3])|[E6A6]([FA][EA]| [D2A2])F2[F2A2][F2d2]|ABdf edBd|ABd[de] [df]dee|d6:|]
LITTLE BETTY BROWN [2]. American, Reel (cut time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. This version, which is cognate with the Kessinger Brothers' "Little Betty Brown (1)" in the first strain, was recorded in Chicago, Ill., for Decca Records in January, 1935, by the Texas group Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies. The recording featured the fiddling of Cecil Brower and semi-sung square dance calls:
???? and all get straight, join hands Indian style,
Nod to your partner and go hog wild.
Join hands, form a ring, meet your partner and shake that thing,
Big foot up, little foot down, let your big foot jaw the ground.
Meet your partner and pat her on the head, jf she don't like biscuits feed 'er corn bread,
Big foot up and little foot down, let your big foot jaw the ground.
Changes back and spit on the wall, swing your partner across the hall,
Swing your partner, now spin mine, level scramble all the time.
According to folklorist Vance Randolf [1] "A very strait-laced backwoods girl does not permit a partner to put his arm around her waist at all, but is swung by a handclasp only. The two methods of swinging are known as Biscuits and Cornbread, as in this old dance call:
Meet your partner, pat her on the head,
If she don't like biscuits feed her cornbread.
The couplet also appears in Texas fiddler Bob Wills' song "Stay a Little Longer." "Soppin' the Gravy" is a similar tune.
- ↑ Vance Randolf, Down in the Holler: A Gallery of Ozark Folk Speech