Annotation:Lynchburg Town (1)
Back to Lynchburg Town (1)
LYNCHBURG TOWN. AKA - "Going Down to Lynchburg Town," "Lebeck Town," "Lynchburg." AKA and see "Coon Dog (1)," "Going Down in Town (2)," "Raccoon's Tail," "Way Up on the Mountain." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, Tennessee. A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. This song/tune was African-American in origins and, in an early iteration, enjoyed a life on the minstrel stage as a song by Frank Spencer, “The Original Lynchburg Town” [1] (New York, 1848). Spencer was a minstrel performer (in 1854 he was with the Boston-based troupe Yankee Hill's Minstrels) and songwriter who arranged for Stephen Foster and composed for the Christy Minstrels.
You may talk as you will ob de good ole times,
Ob dandy Jim and Joe,
But we am de darkies for fun and glee,
And we sing and play de banjo.
CHO:
And we’re goin’ long down,
And we’re goin’ long down to town
And we’re goin’ long down to Lynchburg town,
To sing to de white folks dar.
Many of the verses that came to be associated with the song are "floating verses" i.e. shared with one or several other songs. The earliest cohesive text in oral tradition, however, dates to 1914, found in Brown, collected from Amy Henderson of Worry, Burke County, N.C.
Here is a sampling of just some of the verses associated with the song:
Goin' down to town, goin' down to town,
Goin' down to Lynchburg town to take my 'bacco down.
Times a gettin' hard money's gettin' scarce,
Pay me for the tobacco boys before I leave this place.
I went down to town to get me jug of wine,
They tied me up to a whippin' post and gave me forty-nine.
I went down to town to get me a jug of gin
They tied me up to another post and give me hell again. (Preceeding four verses from Art Rosenbaum)
I went down to the stillhouse, I didn't go to stay,
I fell in love with a whiskey keg, you bet I stayed all day.
Refrain
I'm goin' down, way way downtown,
I'm goin' down to Lynchburg Town to lay my tobaccer down.
I went up on the mountain just to give my horn a blow,
I thought I heard my pretty girl say "Yonder comes my beau".
Well once'd I had an old hound dog, I wish he'd bring him back,
He chased the big hogs round the fence and the little ones through the crack.
I bought myself a banjer, I strung it up with twine,
The only tune that thing would play was "Trouble On My Mind".
Well times are gettin' hard, money's gettin' scarce,
If times don't get much better here we're bound to leave this place.
Morgan Sexton sings these verses in his version called "Going Down in Town":
I'm going down in town (x2)
I Don't care what the old folks say,
I'm going down in town
I'm going down in town
They call me down for supper
Stubbed my toe on a table leg,
Stuck my nose in the butter.
African-American musician Joe Thompson plays a local Orange County version that he calls "'Way up on the Mountain," although it appears on his Rounder CD as "Goin' Downtown." Thompson tunes his fiddle to 'low bass' (FCGD), and plays the tune around a G tonal center. He sings:
Away up on the mountain, away up on the mountain,
Way up on the mountain where the eagle builds his nest.
Going on downtown, going on downtown,
Going on down to Leesburg town, lay my 'bacco down.
Uncle Jimmy Thompson, the elderly fiddler and "founder of the Grand Old Opry" remembered learning this tune (a "fine quadrille") as a young man in Texas on August 4, 1866 (Wolfe, 1997). See also the closely related "Old Hat" by the Leake County Revelers.
Source for notated version: Cranberry Lake [Kuntz].
Printed sources: Kuntz (Ragged but Right), 1987; p. 19-20.
Recorded sources: AHR4, Harvey Sampson - "Flat Foot in the Ashes." Biograph RC-6007, Ebenezer - "Tell It To Me" (1975). Brunswick Records, Al Hopkins & His Buckle Busters (1928. Unissued). Columbia 15096-D (78 RPM), Blue Ridge Highballers (1926, as "Going Down to Lynchburg Town"). County 407 Blue Ridge Highballers "Original Recordings of 1926." June Appal JA 0055, Morgan Sexton - "Rock Dust" (1989. Appears as "Goin Down in Town"). Old Homestead OHTRS 4000, Wade Mainer - "From the Maple on the Hill" (1976). Philo 1028, Wade Mainer and the Morris Brothers - "Good Time Music. National Folk Festival "(1975). Rooster 101, Corn Dodgers - "Cotton eyed Joe." Swallowtail 8, Cranberry Lake- "Old Time and Jug Band Music" (1977). Traditional JS-5117, Jean Schilling - "Old Traditions" (196?). Vocalion 5456 (78 RPM), Uncle Jimmy Thompson 1848-1931 (Texas, Tenn.) {1930} [learned by Uncle Jimmy on 8/4/1866, by his account]. Hilltop Records 6022, Uncle Jimmy Thompson. Yazoo 2046 Uncle Jimmy Thompson - "Cornshuckers Frolic," vol 2.
See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]