Bile Them Cabbage Down: A Song History
"Bile Them Cabbage Down" (also "Boil Them Cabbage Down") is an American folk song. Its words have never settled into one fixed text: singers swap verses freely, and many of them also turn up in other songs.[1] The song's African American roots show clearly in the early collections. Early collectors such as White, Scarborough and Brown all took down versions from Black informants.[2] The African American scholar Thomas W. Talley was the first to publish the words, in his 1922 collection Negro Folk Rhymes.[2] The folklorist Ralph Rinzler went further back and connected the melody to "Smiling Polly," an English country dance printed in 1765.[2] The song has Roud number 4211.[1]
Adolphe-Félix Cals, Still Life with Vegetables, Partridge, and a Jug, 1858. The Cleveland Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0).
The song was recorded early in the history of country music. Uncle Dave Macon recorded one of the first versions in 1924. Fiddlin' John Carson and Riley Puckett each recorded it separately that same year, and the Skillet Lickers recorded it in 1928.[2] The fiddler Clayton McMichen worked up a virtuoso version to play at major fiddle contests, and by his own account it was his favorite contest tune.[2] Field recordings of the song in the Library of Congress's American Folklife Center come from all over the United States.[3]
Today it is one of the most common first tunes. The Traditional Tune Archive notes that it is "commonly found in beginning fiddle instructors."[2] Old-time players also use it to teach young newcomers on fiddle, banjo, mandolin, guitar and mountain dulcimer.[1]
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