2007-02-10 18:05:49 · 12 answers · asked by jesse who 1 in Entertainment & Music ➔ Music
Do you know the whole song? The meaning is best understood by its context and dialectic nuances.
'When I was young, I used to wait
on my ol' massa and hold his plate,
and pass the jug when he got dry -
and brush away the blue-tail fly'
and so on.
It is a song written by an African slave of white southern United States plantation owners. He tells the tale of how he is sad because his beloved owner or 'massa' (master) died after a horse threw him. The horse had bucked the owner off after being bitten by a 'blue-tail' fly, a biting insect resembling a housefly.
At any rate, among slaves there were classes and separations just as in any society, and as in any society one's opinion of an event is influenced by their station within the society. 'House Slaves' were generally favored and trusted persons who took advantage of the opportunity to escape the more menial tasks of field hands generally by being more subservient and vascillating to their owners. Kind of a 'Stockholm Syndrome' thing I'm sure but no doubt it earned them some amount of scorn among their peers.
The way this relates to the song is that two slave persons are shown: the author, and "Jimmy" who is "cracking corn". The author/singer is probably a stable hand or house-boy who was close to the owner, probably the child of a house slave who grew up playing with the owner's children. He was naturally saddened by his master's passing, both for the grieving of losing a personal 'friend', and also for the fear that the new master might not look upon the house slaves as favorably as the old one had and might be prone to making some changes. So the author was blue and in a funk. "Jimmy" on the other hand thought the whole thing was funny. He was obviously not a slave of a high station like the author, probably a field hand with nothing to lose. He was making fun of the author for giving a damn about the dead 'massa', cracking jokes - corny jokes - "cracking corn". Perhaps "talking smack" in more recent vernacular.
So when the author wrote, "Jimmy crack corn and I don't care", he was saying, 'Jimmy is making fun of me, but it doesn't really matter to me because I am heartbroken over the loss of my friend/job security".
2007-02-10 18:42:18 · answer #1 · answered by rumplesnitz 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Hi Jesse, Isn't that when you peal the corn and then crack it in half? Jimmy cracked corn and i don't care. Jimmy cracked corn and i don't care anymore. Hey jimmy let me show you how to crack that corn. This is fun. LOL. A FRIEND.
Clowmy
2007-02-11 02:19:47 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Jimmy is cracking the corn.
2007-02-11 02:08:43 · answer #3 · answered by pooh_9836 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
gimcrack corn was a very cheap form of whiskey. The actual name of the song is The Blue Tail Fly.
jimmy crack corn and i don't care, da massa done gone away.
2007-02-11 02:31:06 · answer #4 · answered by cruz doggie 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
i think he was crapping corn and they changed it into a childrens song and he cracked it
2007-02-11 02:10:40 · answer #5 · answered by Namaste 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It's different from popped corn.
2007-02-11 02:09:39 · answer #6 · answered by Dan821 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It's drunken gossip. crack=boast, corn= corn wiskey
2007-02-11 02:17:32 · answer #7 · answered by gregory_dittman 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Jimmy farted.but i don't care
2007-02-11 02:08:18 · answer #8 · answered by UknowWho 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I don't care
2007-02-11 02:07:51 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
hmm
2007-02-11 02:08:29 · answer #10 · answered by sierra s 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋