What is a "see line woman" (as referenced in Nina Simone song)?

Answer 1

On May 13, 1939, Herbert Halpert made a series of field recordings in Byhalia, MS, including several with the family of Walter and Mary Shipp. Walter, a sharecropper and minister, and Mary, a choir director, had 14 children, several of whom participated in the archival project, but the couple's two daughters, Christine and Katherine, then 19 and 20 years old, were the real standouts, delivering several rope-skipping rhymes and rhythms that still have an intimate and haunting power all these years later, particularly the eerie and mysterious fragment called "Sea Lion Woman." The lyrics of this song for keeping time are simple enough, mostly about drinking coffee and drinking tea, but there's an ominous, edgy, and unsaid eeriness about it that moves beyond words and meaning. The lyric has been given several variant titles over the years, including "Sea Lion Woman," "See Lyin' Woman," "C-Line Woman," "See-Lye Woman," "See Line Woman" (this is the title used by Nina Simone for her version), and "She Lyin' Woman," all of which only adds to the enigmatic nature of the recording that the Shipp sisters made that day. Greg Hale Jones looped the original field recording of the song to lengthen it, added electronically enhanced ambience, and placed two versions of the modernized version (still containing Christine and Katherine's vocals) on The General's Daughter soundtrack in 1999. The end result was spooky and atmospheric, but then so was the original, which continues to fascinate anyone who hears it.

Answer 2

See Line Woman

Answer 3

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What is a "see line woman" (as referenced in Nina Simone song)?

Answer 4

From NCRW radio:

Nina’s “Sealine Woman” is a 19th century seaport song about sailors and prostitutes. The sailors would come into port (Charleston or New Orleans perhaps). Women of the pleasure quarters would be waiting, lined up dockside. Their dress c0lors signified the specific delights they offered. That is what the song is really about. Nina sang it many different ways, often changing the lyrics. Here are most of them. It’s a slippery thing, this song; the lyrics and song title always change according to who you ask.

“Sealine Woman” – Nina Simone, 1964

Sealine woman, she drink coffee she drink tea and then go home

Sealine woman, sealine woman, dressed in green

wears silk stockings with golden seams

Sealine woman, dressed in brown

watch out fellas, she’s gonna get down

Sealine woman, sealine woman, dressed in red

make a man lose his head (or wears a rag upon her head)

Sealine woman, sealine woman

black dress on, for a thousand dollars

she wail and she moan

(variant) sealine woman, dressed in black

sleep all day, on her back

Sealine woman, wiggle wiggle

turn like a cat, wink at a man

and he wink back

Now child, sealine woman

empty his pockets and wreck his days

make him love her, and she’ll fly away

sealine woman, dressed in white

stay up all day, ball all night

Sealine woman, dressed in yellow

watch out girl, gonna steal your fellow