"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 jimmy, crack and/or corn:
“You’re so sly and so am I.”
—Michael Mann, U.S. screenwriter. Jimmy Price (Dan E. Butler)
“Spread outward. Crack the round dome. Break through.
Have liberty not as the air within a grave
Or down a well. Breathe freedom, oh, my native,
In the space of horizons that neither love nor hate.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“The corn is as high as an elephant’s eye.”
—Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960)