Rosie
ROSIE
(Recording of prisoners at Mississippi State Penitentiary's Parchman work camp. Recorded by song collector/archivist Alan Lomax in 1947) (Transcription adapted from pancocojams blog (which also provides commentary).
Call and Response form in flexible polyphonic microtonal pentatonic; rhythm provided by axe strokes.
Text follows:
Lead Singer's Call: "Be my woman, gal, I'll-"
Group Response: " -be your man."
(3x)
Call: "Every Sunday's dollar-"
Response: "-in your hand."
Call: "In your hand, Lordy-"
Response: "-in your hand."
Call: "Every Sunday's dollar-"
Response: "-in your hand."
Call: "Stick to the promise, gal, that-"
Response: "-you made me."
(3x)
Call: "Wasn't gonna marry 'til-uh-"
Response: "-I go free."
Call: "I go free, lordy-"
Response: "I go free."
Call: "Wasn't gonna marry 'til-uh-"
Response: "-I go free."
Call: "Well, Rosie-"
Call: "-oh, lord, gal."
Call: "Ah, Rosie-"
Response: "-oh, lord, gal."
Call: "When she walks she reels and-"
Response: "-rocks behind."
(2x)
Call: "Ain't that enough to worry-"
Response: "-[a] convict's mind."
(2x)
Call: "Well, Rosie-"
Call: "-oh, lord, gal."
Call: "Well, Rosie-"
Response: "-oh, lord, gal."
Lead Singer's Call: "Be my woman, gal, I'll-"
Group Response: " -be your man."
(3x)
Call: "Every Sunday's dollar-"
Response: "-in your hand."
Call: "Well, Rosie-"
Call: "-oh, lord, gal."
(3x)
Call: "When she walks she reels and-"
Response: "-rocks behind."
(2x)
Call: "Ain't that enough to worry-"
Response: "-[a] convict's mind."
(2x)
From Alan Lomax archive; Global Jukebox provides the following information (navigate to Learning->Accredited lesson plans)
Song Title: Rosie
Genre: Work song; prison song
Description: Rosie is the big song of the Mississippi Penitentiary; Rosie is the faithful-unfaithful girl of the prisoner's fantasy, constant in one verse, false in the next, as one tormenting notion after another arrives in the singer's mind
Performers/Instruments: C.B. '88' Cooke; ten men; axes
African Peoples / African Diaspora N. America / African American Folk
Location: Mississippi State Penitentiary, Parchman, Mississippi
Lat: 32.71 Long: -87.06
Culture: Mississippi Delta
Alt. Names:
Language: English
Language Family: Indo-European, Germanic, Anglian
People/Culture: Africans were brought as slaves to Mississippi even before it became a state in 1817. White planters controlled the richest land along the Mississippi River and the economy based on the export of cotton increased the need for slaves. After the Civil War, many freedmen migrated to the Mississippi Delta and bought land there. Most lost their land in the early 1900s due to segregation, financial crises and decline of cotton prices.
Recorded By: Alan Lomax, 1947
Publisher: Tradition Records
Publication/Collection: Prison Recordings, ACE Online Archive
Repository: Alan Lomax Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
Source Notes: Prev. published as Negro Prison Songs. Tradition Records, TLP1020, 1957
Audio File ID: T5623R11
Duration: 0:03:11
Lomax Source: 5A65.B1
Murdock Name: U.S. SOUTH:BLACK
Murdock Number: 24619
Coding ID: 474