2006-12-15 07:04:41 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
I know the song...just not sure what "cotton-eye" means?
2006-12-15 07:29:43 · update #1
I looked at a lot of sites and found numerous theories on what 'cotton-eye' Joe refers to ...
1)Cotton-eyed is what some people called a blue-eyed black person
2) Cotton-eyed refers to cataracts
3)Rather than cataracts, it is more likely that Cotton-eyed refers to a viral disease called Trachoma. This ia an infectious disease which was once considered grounds for non-admission to the US
4)Another said he heard the 'true' story of what it meant by someone who sang Cotton Eyed Joe as a theme song, and it referred to a blind street musician.
This is what I found...hope it helps a little :)
2006-12-15 08:32:11 · answer #1 · answered by vetchick_1999 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Cotton Eyed Joe
2016-03-29 08:30:06 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Folklorist Dorothy Scarborough was one of the first to publish the traditional song in an academic work, noting that it predated the American Civil War. In her 1925 collection of African-American song, Joe is a “hoodoo” man who rolls into town with the travelling medicine show. Other variants cast Joe as a slave, a hired hand, or a talented fiddler. Michelle Shocked has recently theorized that Joe could perform abortions. Regardless of the particulars, “Cotton Eyed Joe” appears to have become a staple of both African and Euro-North American musical traditions by the mid to late 1920s, and was commercially recorded at least six times in that decade alone.
2006-12-15 08:26:23 · answer #3 · answered by bensbabe 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It is a western Dance named after the song. Cotton Eyed Joe.
2006-12-15 07:12:50 · answer #4 · answered by JUAN FRAN$$$ 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It is a SONG:
Eighteen, nineteen, twenty years ago,
. . . run away with Cotton Eye Joe.
Had not a-been for Cotton Eye Joe,
I'd been married a long time ago.
Hold my fiddle and a-hold my bow,
Gonna beat the devil out of Cotton Eye Joe.
(Fiddle Tune: "Tennessee Wagner")
If you want to listen to it.. click on this:
http://www.lyon.edu/wolfcollection/songs/mahoncotton1265.html
2006-12-15 07:14:18 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
I think maybe a drunk or a drifter they want to know where he came from and where he is going... not sure though... but it is the BEST song to dance too!!! I love to dance to it!!!
2006-12-15 07:13:43 · answer #6 · answered by angel_babydoll_devil08 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Great dance song by the Rednex!!!
2006-12-15 07:14:41 · answer #7 · answered by LindaLou 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋