Buck Eyed Rabbit: A Song History

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The earliest trace of this piece in the sources consulted here is a record made in New York on October 22, 1926, when the Hill Billies, a string band with Al Hopkins singing, cut "Buck-eyed Rabbits," an instrumental with a vocal refrain.[1] The side came out on Vocalion 5023 and on Brunswick 104, the Brunswick issue crediting the group as Al Hopkins and his Buckle Busters.[1] A copy of that Brunswick 78, backed with "Bristol Tennessee Blues," survives in the collections of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.[2]

Japanese woodblock print of a white rabbit among dandelions and young fern shoots, with lines of calligraphy above

Kubo Shunman, Hare and Dandelion?, woodblock print (surimono), probably 1820. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). A Japanese hare, shown in fun; it has no connection to the tune.

A tune history from the Knoxville Old Time group calls it a two-part tune in G and reads "buck-eyed" as slang for unusual-looking eyes.[3] The same page cites album notes by Mike Bryant and Paul Brown that date the song to the minstrel era, and remarks that its words show that origin.[3]

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Sources

  1. Discography of American Historical Recordings (UC Santa Barbara): "Brunswick matrix E3990-E3991. Buck-eyed rabbits / Hill Billies ; Al Hopkins".
  2. Smithsonian National Museum of American History: "Buck-Eyed Rabbits; Bristol Tennessee Blues".
  3. Knoxville Old Time: "Buck Eyed Rabbit".