Annotation:Went to the River and I Couldn't Get Across

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WENT TO THE RIVER AND I COULDN'T GET ACROSS. AKA - "Old Aunt Mary Jane," "Ho Babe." Old Time, Breakdown. USA, Oklahoma. A Aeolian. Standard or AEae tunings (fiddle). AABCCD. J.S. Price (Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma; Thede).

Went to the river, I couldn't get across;
I jumped on a bullfrog and thought he was a hoss.

Price's couplet was widespread in Southern tradition as a "floating verse" and variants appear in several songs, such as "Hook and Line." The stanza below was collected in Kentucky around 1905 (MS of C.B. House):

I went to the river and couldn't get across;
Jumped on a 'possum, and thought he was a horse.
The river was deep, and the bottom was sand;
You ought to seed that 'possum racking through the land.

2. THE OLD GRAY HORSE A (From East Tennessee; mountain whites; from memory; 1908)

Went to the river at break uv day, Couldn't get across, en' uh had to stay; Paid five dollars fer un ole gray horse, Wouldn't go erlong, en' 'e wouldn't stan' still, But jumped up en' daown like un ole flutter-mill.

B (From Mississippi; country whites; MS. of Miss Reedy; 1909)

I went to the river and I couldn't get across; Paid five dollars for an old gray horse, Horse wouldn't ride, horse wouldn't swim, And I'll never see my five dollars agin.

C (From Virginia; mountain whites; MS. of D. H. Bishop; 1909)

I went to the river and couldn't get across; Jumped on a toad-frog and thought he was a horse.2

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; p. 64

Recorded sources:

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