"Blue Tail Fly," "De Blue Tail Fly," or "Jimmy Crack Corn" is thought to be a blackface minstrel song, first performed in the United States in the 1840s. It remains a popular children's song today.
Over the years, many lyrical variants have appeared, but the basic narrative remains intact. On the surface, the song is a black slave's lament over his master's death. The song, however, has a subtext of rejoicing over that death, and possibly having caused it by deliberate negligence. Most versions at least nod to idiomatic African English, though sanitized, Standard English versions now predominate.
The blue-tail fly mentioned in the song is probably Tabanus atratus, a species of horse-fly found in the American South. As it feeds on the blood of animals such as horses and cattle, as well as humans, it constitutes a prevalent pest in agricultural regions. This species of horse-fly has a blue-black abdomen, hence the name.
Read more about Jimmy Crack Corn: Lyrics, History and Interpretation, Covers, Popular Culture References
Famous quotes containing the words crack and/or corn:
“One more crack from you, bimbo, and you’ll be holding a lily.”
—James Gleason (1886–1959)
“The hill farmer ... always seems to make out somehow with his corn patch, his few vegetables, his rifle, and fishing rod. This self-contained economy creates in the hillman a comparative disinterest in the world’s affairs, along with a disdain of lowland ways. “I don’t go to question the good Lord in his wisdom,” runs the phrasing attributed to a typical mountaineer, “but I jest cain’t see why He put valleys in between the hills.””
—Administration in the State of Arka, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)