“Watermelon on the Vine”

Description

"You may talk about your apples, your peaches, and your pears... But... The watermelon am de fruit for me." "But gimme, oh, gimme me... That watermelon hanging on the vine." The singer begs for, or makes other plans to acquire, the watermelon

Supplemental text

Watermelon on the Vine
  Partial text(s)

          *** A ***

From Bob Black, Come Hither to Go Yonder, Playing Bluegrass with
Bill Monroe, p. 40. The lyrics cited are of course from Monroe.

See that watermelon smilin' through the fence?
How I wish that melon was mine.
White folks they am foolish or they haven't got a lot of sense
Or they wouldn't leave that melon on the vine.

(2 additional stanzas plus a final chorus)

Notes

Bob Black, who played with the Blue Grass Boys for a couple of years, describes this as Bill Monroe's "theme song" (_Come Hither to Go Younder_, p. 40), but obviously it preceded him. - RBW

Cross references

• cf. "There Was a Watermelon" (theme)

Recordings

• Bela Lam and His Green County Singers, "Watermelon Smiling on the Vine" (OKeh, unissued, 1929)
• The Monroe Brothers, "Watermellon Hangin' on the Vine" (Bluebird 6829)
• Ernest Stoneman, "Watermelon Hanging on the Vine" (Edison 51864, 1926) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5191, 1926)
• Uncle Dave Macon, "Watermelon Smilin' on the Vine" (Vocalion 15063, 1923)
• Henry Whitter, "Watermelon Hanging on the Vine" (OKeh 40296, 1925; rec. 1924)

References

1. BrownIII 454, "Oh, Dat Watermilion" (2 fragments, possibly other songs mixed with this, but too short to bother classifying separately); 468, "Watermelon Hanging on the Vine" (1 text)
2. ST Br3454 (Partial)
3. Roud #11795
4. BI, Br3454