2006-07-27 23:34:14 · 8 answers · asked by whosyerpappy_87 1 in Entertainment & Music ➔ Comics & Animation
To crack corn is to break or crush it into pieces. It's an American expression that's been around since at least the late 18th century.
The song entitled "Jim Crack Corn" was written in 1846. (That extra beat after the syllable "Jim" probably led people to start singing "Jimmy" fairly early on.) It was published by the Virginia Minstrels, and was probably written by the northerner Daniel Emmett, who wrote a lot of the songs for their blackface minstrel show.
For those of you who didn't have the benefit of learning this song as a child: it's a story told from a slave's point of view about how his master died from the sting of one blue-tail fly that managed to get him despite the slave's vigilant fly-brushing efforts.
Most of the theories about who Jimmy is and what he's really doing agree that whatever he's doing, the slave doesn't care about it because his master is gone. Whether he's gleefully carefree or woefully despondent is a point of dispute, depending a bit on which of the two main theories you subscribe to:
1."Cracking corn" is opening a bottle of corn liquor; the phrase is self-referential and means "I'm Jimmy, I'm upset, I'm drinking, and I don't care." Well, that sense of crack is certainly old enough, but I can't find any evidence of "corn" being used independently of the phrases "corn liquor" or "corn juice." And if Jimmy is really talking, why use "I" in the second part of the sentence, but be Bob Dole-like in the first part?
2."Cracking corn" really is crushing corn, and it means that someone named Jimmy, presumably a fellow slave, had to start grinding corn for food because of the penury visited on him after the master's death. This is as plausible as any other piece of speculation, but it's not a satisfactory answer to who Jimmy is and why he suddenly turns up in the refrain.
2006-07-27 23:52:05 · answer #1 · answered by < Roger That > 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
if Jimmy cracked corn and nobody cared, then why the hell is there a song about it?
2006-07-28 03:02:59 · answer #2 · answered by Annette G 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Cause Jimmy cared!!!
2006-07-27 23:38:34 · answer #3 · answered by Jessy B 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
in case you knew Jimmy you does no longer be asking this question... He would not supply a flying rattling what human beings care about.... He has a job to do... and, he does it..... Now, if he were to renounce.... I be sure that there ought to be countless those which could care..... His freaking boss, for one !! ? ////
2016-11-26 20:26:14 · answer #4 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Based on Mommy's answer, he was hungry of he was a drunk, either way I can see why no one cared....
2006-07-28 02:20:57 · answer #5 · answered by DarkWolf_1st 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because he was shucking himself to death while being high or something.
2006-07-28 03:56:41 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
cause nobody cared.
2006-07-28 01:20:29 · answer #7 · answered by evilstar13 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
he was nuts
2006-07-27 23:37:52 · answer #8 · answered by glock509 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋