Cotton Eyed Joe
Notation:
Standard Notation
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Mandolin Tablature
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Mandolin Tablature
Song Sheet
American
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
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Lyrics:
Do you remember Long time ago,
Daddy worked a man called Cotton Eyed Joe?
Chorus:
Where do you come from where do you go?
Where do you come from Cotton Eyed Joe?
Where do you come from where do you go?
Where do you come from Cotton Eyed Joe?
I could have been married long time ago
If it hadn’t ‘a been for Cotton Eyed Joe.
Chorus
Old bull fiddle and a shoe-string bow,
Wouldn’t play nothin’ but Cotton Eyed Joe.
Chorus
Play it fast or play it slow,
Didn’t play nothing but Cotton Eyed Joe.
Chorus
I tuned up my fiddle, I went to a dance,
I tried to make some music, but I didn't get a chance.
Chorus
Oh, it makes them ladies love me so,
When I come ‘round pickin’ ole Cotton Eyed Joe.
Chorus
Come a little rain and come a little snow,
The house fell down on Cotton Eyed Joe.
Chorus
Come for to dance, come for to sing,
Come for to show you my diamond ring.
Chorus
"Cotton-Eyed Joe", also known as “Dominicker Duck” is an old-time American breakdown.<br> It is widely known but may have originally been a Texas tune.<br> There have been several thoughts about what the title might refer to. Some think ‘cotton-eyed’<br> means to be drunk on moonshine and a related suggestion is that it refers to an individual<br> who has been blinded by drinking wood alcohol (as happened during Prohibition, for example),<br> turning the eyes milky white. Alan Lomax suggests it was used to describe a man whose<br> eyes were milky white from Trachoma (a bacterial infection), while others have suggested<br> cataracts, syphilis or glaucoma. “Cotton Eyed Joe” was the name of a heel-and-toe<br> dance in Texas in the 1880’s.<br> It was printed in Beisswenger & McCann's Ozark Fiddle Music (2008), Brody's Fiddler’s Fakebook<br> (1983), R.P. Christeson's Old Time Fiddlers Repertory, vol. 1 (1973), Ford's Traditional<br> Music in America (1940), Frets Magazine, "Byron Berline: The Fiddle," September 1981,<br> Kaufman's Beginning Old Time Fiddle (1977), Perlman's The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward<br> Island (1996), Phillips's Fiddlecase Tunebook (1989), Phillips's Traditional American Fiddle<br> Tunes (1994), Thede's The Fiddle Book (1967) and Thomas & Leeder's The Singin' Gatherin' (1939). <br> It was recorded by Lonnie Robertson, Wilson Douglas, The Skillet Lickers, Pope's Arkansas<br> Mountaineers, Carter Brothers and Son, Fiddlin' John Carson, Tommy Jarrell, Tommy Jackson,<br> Wry Straw and Byard Ray, Tommy Jackson, Dan Gellert & Shoofly, The Highwoods String Band,<br> Wilson Douglas, Rodney Miller, Mike Seeger, Marcus Martin and others.<br>
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