Annotation:Raccoon's Tail
X:1 T: Raccoon's Tail B:E.F. Adam, "Old Time Fiddlers Favorite Barn Dance Tunes" (St. Louis, B:1928, No. 14, p. 7) M:2/4 L:1/16 K:G (ef|.g2)a2 (3gage2|(d2[BD]2) [BD]2 (ef|.g2)b2 a2g2|[ce]3[de]- [ce]2(ef| .g2)a2 (3gage2|(d2[BD]2)[BD]4|ABAF E2F2|G3A- G2:| |:GA|[BD]2[BD]2 [BD]3[Dc]|[dD]2[DB]2 [DB]2GA|[BD]2[BD]2 [BD]3G|[DA]2[GG,]2 [GG,]2 GA| [BD]2[BD]2 [BD]3[Dc]|[dD]2-[DB]2 [DB]4|ABAF E2F2|G3A- G2:|
RACCOON’S TAIL IS RINGED ALL AROUND. American, Reel (cut time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The title is from a floating verse that appears in a number of old-time song, play-party songs and breakdown ditties, that usually goes:
The raccoon's tail is ringed all around,
The possum's tail is bare;
The rabbit, has no tail at all,
But a little bunch of hair.
I appears, for example, in the songs "Old Napper" AKA "Napper," "Poor Old Napper," "The Racoon's Tail," "Kitty, Cain't You Come Along Too?," "The Racoon has a Bushy Tail," "The Old Raccoon," "I went to my sweetheart's house," and Vance Randolph's Ozarks collected "My Gal Ain't got no Tail" [1] (from Unprintable Ozark Folksongs and Folklore: Roll me in your arms, Volume 1).
