Annotation:Never Do to Give it Up So
Back to Never Do to Give it Up So
NEVER DO TO GIVE IT UP SO. AKA - "It Will Never Do to Give it Up So." American, Minstrel Tune (2/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The song was written by songwriter Daniel Decatur Emmett (1815-1904) for the minstrel stage, and goes:
I'm old Mister Brown from the South,
I left Lynchburg in the time of the drouth;
The times they got so bad in the place,
That we poor folks dared not show our face.
Chorus:
It will never do to give it up so,
It will never do to give it up so;
It will never do to give it up so, Mr. Brown,
It will never do to give it up so.
The old Jim River I floated down,
I ran my boat upon the ground;
The drift log come with a rishing din,
And the stove both ends of my old boat in.
The old log rake me aft and fore,
It left my cookhouse on the shore;
I thought it wouldn't do to give it up so,
So I scull myself ashore with the old banjo.
I gets on shore and feels very glad,
I looks at the banjo and feels very mad;
I walks up the bank that's slick as glass,
Up, went my heels and I light upon the grass.
By golly, but it surely made me laugh,
With my boat I made a raft;
I had a pine tree for a sail,
And steered her down with my coattail.
That same night as the sun did set,
I arrived in town with my clothes all wet;
Then I built up a great big fire,
If that's not true then I am a liar.
The repetitive chorus and singable melody soon inspired a Temperance versions. One is contained in R.K. Potter's The Boston Temperance Songster (Boston, 1846) that begins:
Friends of temperance, fair and strong,
List a moment to our song;
Do not be in haste to go;
'Twill not do to give it up so.
It will never do to give it up so,
It will never do to give it up so,
It will never do to give it up so, oh no,
It will never do to give it up so.
Still there is a wretched band
Of drunkards reeling through the land;
And our work will not be done,
'Twill we've saved them every one.
Another is to be found in Edwin Paxton Hood's The Book of Temperance Melody Adapted and Arranged to Popular Airs, published in London in 1850, reprinted in John Ripley's Temperance Melodies (London, 1854). The song is identified as American:
We've fought the battle very long,
And now we'll sing a little song,
To raise our spirits, getting low,
For it won't do to give it up so.
Chorus:
It'll never do to give it up so,
It will never do to give it up so,
It will never do to give it up so, Oh no,
It will never do to give it up so.
We've had a hard and lengthy race,
We still keep on the same old pace;
So long as Rum shall lay men low,
It will never do to give it up so.
etc.
A variant of the lyric, to a different melody, turns up in a play-party song, collected in Versailles, Indiana, from informant Mrs. A.T. Beckett, who called the song "Walk Along John" a title that occurs in Old-Time repertory. The lyric thus would seem to indicate a crossing over and dissemination of Emmett's minstrel song into vernacular old-time music, or perhaps a conflation of the preexisting "Walk Along John" with Emmett's song.
Walk along John, the fifer's son,
Ain't you might glad your day's work's done?
Walk along John, the fifer's son,
Ain't you mighty glad your day's work's done?
Chorus:
O 'twill never do to give it up, Old Uncle Ben,
It will never do to give it up so,
O 'twill never do to give it up, Old Uncle Ben,
It will never do to give it up so.
Old Mr. Coon, you come too soon,
The girls won't be ready till tomorrow afternoon,
Old Mr. Coon, you come too soon,
The girls won't be ready till tomorrow afternoon.
X:1 T:Walk Along John M:2/4 L:1/8 R:Play-party song (Indiana) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:C (3GGG c>c|BA G2|AAAA G>E|ED C2| (3GGG c>c|BA G2|AAAA G>E|ED C2|| G,/G,/|CC EE|DC A,2|C C/C/ D G,/G,/|CC EE|DC A,2|G,4-|G,2 zG,/G,/| CC EE|DC A,2|CC/C/ DF/F/|EE EE|DD D2|C4-|C2 z2||
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Briggs (Briggs' Banjo Instructor), 1855, Boston, Oliver Ditson Co.; p. 25.
Recorded sources:
See also listing at:
Hear the tune by the 2nd South Carolina String Band on youtube.com [1]