“Mister Rabbit”

Description

"'Mister Rabbit, Mister Rabbit, your tail's mighty white.' 'Yes, bless God, been gettin' out of sight...." Mister rabbit similarly explains its coat, ears, and other physical features

Supplemental text

Mister Rabbit
  Partial text(s)

          *** A ***

From Dorothy Scarborough, On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs,
pp. 173-174. Supplied by "Mr. Dowd" of Charleston, South
Carolina.

"Mister Rabbit, Mister Rabbit,
  Yo' ears mighty long."
"Yes, my lawd,
  Dey're put on wrong!
    Every little soul must shine, shine, shi-ine,
    Every little soul must shi-ine, shine, shine."

(3 additional stanzas)

Notes

Roud links together several rabbit songs under one number: "Mister Rabbit," "Ole Mister Rabbit (I'll Get You Rabbit)," even "Rabbit Hash." All are about rabbits raiding gardens (something they certainly do) and the attempts to punish them for it (rarely successful, even with modern technology). But the forms are quite distinct, so I split them. - RBW

Cross references

• cf. "Rattlesnake" (theme)

Recordings

• Horton Barker, "Hop, Old Rabbit, Hop" [with a couple of verses from "Poor Old Man"] (on Barker01)
• Pete Seeger, "Mister Rabbit" (on PeteSeeger08, PeteSeegerCD02)

References

1. Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 173-174, "Mister Rabbit" (1 text, 1 tune)
2. Lomax-FSUSA 6, "Mister Rabbit" (1 text, 1 tune)
3. Lomax-ABFS, pp. 240-242, "Cotton Field Song" (1 text, 1 tune, composite; the final portion goes here and the rest is largely floating verses or unidentifiable; some may go with "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss")
4. BrownIII 167, "Old Molly Hare (Mr. Rabbit)" (2 texts plus 4 fragments, 1 excerpt, and mention of 2 more; the "C," "D," and "E" fragments, plus probably "B," are "Old Molly Hare," "I" is "Mister Rabbit"; "A" and "G" mix the two)
5. ST LxU006 (Partial)
6. Roud #10058
7. BI, LxU006