Black Eyed Suzie: A Song History

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"Black Eyed Suzie," also written "Black-Eyed Susie," is an old-time breakdown, most often played in D, that also turns up as "Kitty Puss," "Hop Up Kitty Puss" in northeastern Kentucky, and "Puncheon Camps"[1]. Bayard's Dance to the Fiddle proposes a long British Isles ancestry for the melody, running from "Rosasolis" in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book through the "Morris Off" in Jehan Tabourot's Orchesographie (1588) to the English and Scottish "Three Jolly Sheep Skins"; the Traditional Tune Archive reports this lineage as his view[1]. As a song, the Traditional Ballad Index describes it as a loose set of floating verses about courting and marriage, found in the Appalachians and across the South, and it notes a mention of a tune by this name in Maurice Thompson's Hoosier Mosaics (1875)[2].

Watercolor of a fiddler in a long coat playing in a tavern while three men sit in the background

Johannes Hendrik van West, A Fiddler in a Tavern, with Three Men in the Background, watercolor over graphite, mid-19th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). Shown for its fiddler; it has no connection to the tune.

It was recorded often in the first years of commercial country music. Gid Tanner and Riley Puckett recorded it as a vocal duet with fiddle and guitar for Columbia on March 8, 1924 (Columbia 119-D)[3], the earliest date the Ballad Index gives for the song[2], and Henry Whitter's Virginia Breakdowners cut it as "Black-eyed Susan" for OKeh in July 1924 (OKeh 40320)[4]. Al Hopkins and his Buckle Busters, also issued as the Hill Billies, recorded it on May 13, 1927 (Brunswick 175)[5][2]. On August 1, 1927, in Bristol, Tennessee, banjo player and singer J. P. Nester and fiddler Norman Edmonds recorded it for Victor at a session supervised by Ralph Peer (Victor 21070)[6]. Kentucky fiddler Jilson Setters followed for Victor in February 1928[7][1], and Tanner returned to it in 1928 with his Skillet Lickers (Columbia 15283-D)[8].

Folklorists kept finding it in the field. Luther Strong played it for the Library of Congress in Hazard, Kentucky, on October 17, 1937[9], and West Virginia fiddler Tom Whit was recorded playing it in Mingo County on August 27, 1940, for the Louis Watson Chappell collection[10]. The Tune Archive adds Library of Congress recordings from Mississippi, Texas and the Ozarks; Berea, Kentucky, tune lists from 1915 and the 1924 Berea fiddle contest; and reports from the De Kalb County convention in northeast Alabama between 1926 and 1931[1]. The New Lost City Ramblers, who recorded it on String Band Instrumentals after learning it from Nester and from Whitter's Virginia Breakdowners, called it "One of the most popular breakdown tunes" in 1964[1].

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Sources

  1. Traditional Tune Archive: "Black Eyed Susie (1)".
  2. Traditional Ballad Index: "Black-Eyed Susie (Green Corn)".
  3. Discography of American Historical Recordings (UCSB): "Columbia matrix 81635. Black-eyed Susie / Riley Puckett ; Gid Tanner".
  4. Discography of American Historical Recordings (UCSB): "OKeh 40320 (10-in. double-faced)".
  5. Discography of American Historical Recordings (UCSB): "Brunswick 175 (10-in. double-faced)".
  6. Discography of American Historical Recordings (UCSB): "Victor matrix BVE-39747. Black-eyed Susie / J. P. Nester".
  7. Discography of American Historical Recordings (UCSB): "Victor matrix BVE-42488. Black-eyed Susie / Jilson Setters".
  8. Discography of American Historical Recordings (UCSB): "Columbia 15283-D (10-in. double-faced)".
  9. Alan Lomax Kentucky Recordings: "Black-Eyed Susie" (Luther Strong, 1937).
  10. West Virginia University Libraries, Louis Watson Chappell Collection: "Black-Eyed Susie" (Tom Whit, 1940).