“Sally in the Garden”

Description

Dance tune with chorus "Sally in the garden sifting sand/Sally upstairs with a hog-eyed man"; floating verses: "Chicken in the bread pan kicking up dough"; "Sally will your dog bite, no sir, no/Daddy cut his biter off a long time ago"

Notes

This is part of a cluster that includes the bawdy song "The Hog-Eye Man," another Arkansas dance tune "Hogeye" ("Row the boat ashore with a hogeye, hogeye/Row the boat ashore with a hogeye man"), "Granny Will Your Dog Bite" and others. I've used the "Sally in the Garden" title to differentiate the dance tune from the bawdy song, even though they're clearly siblings. - PJS

Paul in fact has strongly suggested merging "Sally in the Garden" and "Roll the Boat Ashore (Hog-eye I)." Roud appears to lump the two. There are verses floating freely between both, which means that fragments often cannot be identified with one or the other. Nonetheless, they appear to me to be different though related songs; the choruses are different, and if all the lyrics float, that is decisive.

Still, one should check the cross-references to be sure to find all the versions. - RBW

Cross references

• cf. "Roll the Boat Ashore (Hog-eye I)" (many floating verses)
• cf. "The Hog-Eye Man" (words)
• cf. "Granny Will Your Dog Bite?" (words, part of tune)

Recordings

• Theophilus Hoskins, "Hog Eyed Man" (AFS, 1937; on KMM)
• New Lost City Ramblers, "Hogeye" (on NLCR03)
• Pope's Arkansas Mountaineers, "Hog Eye" (Victor 21295, 1928)

References

1. Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 67, "Hog-eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
2. BrownIII 232, "Sal's in the Garden Sifting Sand" (1 fragment)
3. SharpAp 250, "The Hog-eyed Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
4. Darling-NAS, pp. 254-255, "Hogeye" (1 text)
5. Roud #331
6. BI, CSW067