Black Joke (1) (The)

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BLACK JOKE [1]. AKA and see "Black Joker," "Black Jack," "Black Jock," "The Black Joak," "But the House and Ben the House" (Shetland), "Sprig of Shillelah [1]." English, Scottish, Shetlands; Country Dance, Jig and Morris Dance Tune (6/8 time). England; Northumberland, Yorkshire. G Major (Aird, Bacon, Carlin, Cooke, Mallinson, O'Farrell, Raven, Sumner, Thompson, Vickers): A Major (Bacon, Gow, Merryweather & Seattle). Standard or AEae (McLean) tunings. AB (Bacon {Stanton Harcourt}, Gow, Thompson): AAB {x6} (Aird, Bacon {Ilmington}, Carlin, Cooke (two versions), Mallinson {Adderbury version}): AABB {x4} (Hall & Stafford, Mallinson {Bledington version}, Merryweather & Seattle, Raven, Sumner, Vickers): AABBCCDDEE (O'Farrell). "The Black Joke" was a widely popular street song in England in the early 1700's. That it was extremely vulgar and bawdy probably in no small way contributed to its continued popularity into the 19th century in that country and its colonies (including America). Irregular in form in many versions, its opening phrase has six measures, while the second has ten. "The Black Joke" was heard in London as early as 1734 in Henry Carey's burlesque stage piece Chrononhotonthologos where it was called "that lowbrow little tune that has been used as an interval tune for years," referring to the music for dances performed in the entr'acte interval at the playhouses. Early English collections (London publishers) that contain the tune are Walsh (Third Collection of Lancashire Jiggs, Hornpipes, Joaks, etc., c. 1730), Johnson's Wrights Collection (London, c. 1742) and Charles and Samuel Thompson's 200 Country Dances volume II (1765). John Kirkpatrick (1976) dates the tune to 1715 without citing his source.

It is played today as the tune for the Lichfield Morris Dance called The Barefooted Quaker, and for dances from other morris traditions. Mallinson's morris dance tune versions, for example, are from the Adderbury and Bledington areas of England's Cotswolds, while Bacon's are from the Adderbury, Ascot-under-Wychwood, Bledington, Ilmington, and Stanton Harcourt. A version of the tune from Badby, Northhamptonshire, is known as "Old Black Joe [1]," and lacks the distinctive two measure ending to both parts typical of most "Black Joke" versions. John Kirkpatrick (1976) is of the opinion that the Badby dance "flows more perfectly than any in the Cotswold Morris. No jumps, no jerky backwards movements, no need to fiddle the feet to get them right. An absolute joy." The tune collected with the dance in Bucknell (under the title "Old Black Joe") is perhaps nearest the original.

The tune is known as "But the House and Ben the House" in Shetland, and Cooke says some informants gave the first lines as:

But your house and ben your house
This house is like a bridal house.

The tune played by his source from the islands was the one commonly known throughout Britain and Ireland during the 18th century as "The Black Joke" (or Jock). A variety of songs were set to it, all of them bawdy and all concerned with sexual intercourse, usually with the burder "Her black joke and belly so white" (where the 'black joke' refers to female genitilia. "Some of the texts are the creations of music-hall hacks, such as the earliest published verses, entitled 'The Original black Joke, Sent from Dublin', which begin: 'No mortal sure can blame ye man/Who prompted by nature will act as he can'...(song sheet, c. 1720 Mitchell Library, Glasgow). Simple and more direct 'folk' versions were well-known in Scotland. The poet Robert Burns wrote a parody beginning 'My girl she's airy...'" (Cooke, 1986). The lyrics appearing below are taken from Andrew Crawford's 1826-28 Collection of Ballads and Songs:

A wee black thing sat on a cushion
Was hairy without and toothless within
Wi' her black Jock and her belley so white

A piper and twa little drummers came there
To play wi the wee thing well covered o'er wi hair

The piper went in and he jigged about
The twa little drummers stood ruffling without

But when he came out he hang doon his head
He look'd like a snail that was trodden to dead

Say's he thay wa'd need to hae something to spare
That meddle wi you or your wee pickle hair. (Cooke)

Cooke's informant, John Irvine, played it as a middle tune between two reels for the ceremony of the "bedding of the bride" around the turn of the century. This ceremony, in which the women of the community escorted the bride to her bed, was performed to fiddle music. "The use of the 'Black Joke' in this context is intriguing, Robert Irvine's knowledge of part of the chorus suggests that in earlier days the whole song might have been known and, unless the fiddler was having his own private joke by playing this piece, possibly even sung by the bride's attendants. Genuine bawdry is often found in such situations elsewhere in the world. According to Legman (1964), 'the purpose of such songs...was and is evidently apotropaic, being intended to ward off the evil eye...dangerously present at all moments of happiness, or of success and victory' (The Horn Book, 1964, p. 388). It is likely, too, that such humour served to release anxiety on the part of the young initiate. Finally, if the text were anything like the Crawfurd text, the explicit detail could have served also as a piece of last-minute sex education--an example of how music is sometimes used in a situation that allows one to sing what might be too embarrassing to say" (Cooke, 1986).

The Scotch versions are based on an English tune that was known as "Black Jock" in Scotland from about 1735 (Johnson). It was often played in Scotland in scordatura tuning (AEae), as directed, for example, in James Gillespie's A Collection of the Best and Most Favourite Tunes for the Violin (Perth, 1768). James Oswald printed a "Burlesque on Black Joak" in his Caledonian Pocket Companion (Book 7, c. 1756), and, a year later set it in 3/4 time (as "Black Jock") in his Collection of Scots Tunes (1757). Johnson thinks the name was changed either on purpose, to 'Scottisize' it (it was known as "Black Jack" in Northumberland), or to distance it from the extremely obscene lyrics. If the latter, the distancing was largely hypocriphal, for the lyrics were well-known throughout the country. The Scots poet Robert Burns (who was no stranger to ribaldry) penned to the melody, in September, 1784, the words "My girl she's airy, she's buxom and gay," one of his earliest bawdy songs:

Her slender neck, her handsome waist,
Her hair well buckl'd, her stays well lad'd,
Her taper white leg with an et, and a, c,
For her a,b,e,d, and her c,u,n,t,
And Oh, for the joys of a long winter night!!!

The tune appears in the McFarlane Manuscript (1740) in a long variation set (18 strains) by Charles McLean, in Bremner's Scots Tunes (1759) in 30 strains, the Gillespie Manuscript (1768), the Sharpe Manuscript (c. 1790) with 18 strains, and a flute MS. of c. 1770; all have basically the same variations, though in different order.

In Ireland, Flood (1906) reports that Madame Violante set off a furor in Dublin's Smock-Alley Theatre in December, 1729, when Cummins danced the "White Joke," a set off to the then-popular "Black Joke." In fact, there soon appeared a number of 'Joke' tunes in country dance collections such as Walsh's, of all the colors of the rainbow.

American audiences heard the melody as the tune for air 13 in Andrew Barten's ballad opera The Disappointment (New York, 1767). A New York City fire company, Volunteer Engine Company No. Thirty Three was popularly known as the Black Joke in the mid-18th century. In light of the bawdy words, a connection undoubtedly not lost on the immigrant Irishmen who made up the bulk of the company, men running around with hoses clutched in their hands probably well-enjoyed the in-joke being called the Black Joke. It is interesting to note that many early New York fire companies were filled with brawlers, and held allegiances to various urban gangs and politicians. The Black Joke, in fact, were in the forefront on some of the notorious New York City draft riots during the Civil War. After one of the company's leaders had been picked in the draft lottery the firemen, at the head of a mob, rushed the lottery headquarters, scattered the policemen and soldiers guarding the lottery wheel, and destroyed it (Herbert Asbury, The Gangs of New York, 1927).

New York City fire engine The Black Joke, a hand pumper.

Sources for notated versions: Bremner (Scots Tunes, 1759) [Johnson]; John Mason via Cecil Sharpe (Stow on the Wold, England) [Bacon]; a MS by fiddler Lawrence Leadley, 1827-1897 (Helperby, Yorkshire) [Merryweather & Seattle]; the 1823-26 music mss of papermaker and musician Joshua Gibbons (1778-1871, of Tealby, near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire Wolds) [Sumner].

Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs), vol. II, 1785; No. 73, p. 27 (appears as "Black Jock"). Bacon (The Morris Ring), 1974, pp. 15, 95, 210, 295. Carlin (The Master Collection of Dance Music for Violin), 1984; No. 47, p. 37. Cooke (The Fiddle Tradition of the Shetland Isles), 1986; pp. 86-87. Gow (Complete Repository), Part 4, 1817; p. 10 (appears as "Black Jock"). Hall & Stafford (Charlton Memorial Tune Book), 1974; p. 20 (appears as "Black Jack"). Johnson (Scottish Fiddle Music in the 18th Century), 1984; No. 32, pp. 86-89. Mallinson (Mally's Cotswold Morris Book), 1988; No. 1, pg. 8 and No. 35, p. 24. Merryweather & Seattle (The Fiddler of Helperby), 1994; No. 81, pp. 48-49 (includes six sets of variations). O'Farrell (Pocket Companion, vol. II), c. 1806; pgs. 92-93. Offord (John of Greeny Cheshire Way), 1985; p. 107. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 116 (Black Jack), 81 & 95. Seattle (William Vickers), 1987, Part 2; No. 206. Sumner (Lincolnshire Collections, vol. 1: The Joshua Gibbons Manuscript), 1997; p. 4. Thompson (Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 2), 1765; No. 183.

Recorded sources: Gourd Music 110, Barry Phillips - "The World Turned Upside Down" (1992). Music Club MCCD376, Chris Bartram (et al) - "The Traditional Morris Dance Music Album." Topic TSCD458, John Kirkpatrick - "Plain Capers" (1976). See also listings at: Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1], Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [http://www.irishtune.info/tune/3997/

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