“She Gets There Just the Same (Jim Crow Car)”
Description
"The white gal smells like Castile soap, The yeller gal try to do the same, The poor black gal smell like little billy goat, But she gets there just the same." Verses comparing the methods and results of several groups
Notes
I've heard this sung by Sixties folk groups in a form which contrasts city and country girls. This may be the original form -- but I suspect it's a clean-up.
The version in Darling is only a fragment, but describes the fate of Blacks forced to ride "Jim Crow cars" on trains (poor-quality cars, often used to ship animals and, quite possibly, not cleaned out after being used for such a purpose).
Brown's verses are much more diverse: The White women ride cars, yellow women ride trains; Blacks are stuck in carts. Whites use cold cream, Blacks lard. Clothing, beds, alcoholic beverages -- in all cases, the Blacks have it worst, but they look good, sleep, get drunk just the same. - RBW
Cross references
- cf. "Coming Round the Mountain (II -- Charming Betsey)" (floating lyrics)
References
- BrownIII 477, "White Cal, Yaller Gal, Black Gal" (5 texts plus 3 fragments; 3 of the texts have the chorus of "Coming Round the Mountain (II -- Charming Betsey)"); also 483, "Rich Man Ride on a Pullman Car" (1 fragment)
- Darling-NAS, p. 355, "[no title]" (1 text)
- Roud #7052
- BI, DarNS355