Information About "Miss Sue From Alabama" Rhyme & Examples Of That Rhyme That Include "Scooby-Do-Wah" Or "Scooby Doo"
Written on: November 15, 2020
Title : Information About "Miss Sue From Alabama" Rhyme & Examples Of That Rhyme That Include "Scooby-Do-Wah" Or "Scooby Doo"
link : Information About "Miss Sue From Alabama" Rhyme & Examples Of That Rhyme That Include "Scooby-Do-Wah" Or "Scooby Doo"
Information About "Miss Sue From Alabama" Rhyme & Examples Of That Rhyme That Include "Scooby-Do-Wah" Or "Scooby Doo"
buttercup7956, March 19, 2011
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My transcription of this video is given below.
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Edited by Azizi Powell
Latest Revision- Janauary 25, 2022
This is Part II of a two part pancocojams series on Jazz scatting and the inclusion of the Jazz scatting phrase "scooby doo" in some versions the "Miss Sue From Alabama" children's rhyme.
Part II presents some information about the children's recreational rhyme "Miss Sue From Alabama" (or "Miss Sue From Parramatta"). Part II also presents an example from that rhyme family that includes the scat phrase "scooby-do-wah" and some examples of that rhyme that include the phrase or cartoon dog's name "Scooby Doo".
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/11/what-is-jazz-scatting-with-youtube.html for Part I of this pancocojams series. Part I presents definitions for and article extracts about Jazz scatting.
The Addendum to that post also presents information about scatting.
The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this video on YouTube.
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Click the "Miss Sue From Alabama" tag for more pancocojams posts about this children's rhyme.
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EARLIEST RECORDED DATES FOR "MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA": 1930s and 1940s
Pancocojams Editor's Note;
"Miss Sue From Alabama" is described as a song that was sung by girls. All of girls are identified as "Negroes" [a no longer used referent for Black Americans.]. There are often notations of the girls dancing after singing this song.
I haven't yet come across the words for any of these early examples.]
1934- cited by Google result: Miss Sue From Alabama- Kodaly Center For Music Education that online site which is no longer available]
Collected by John and Alan Lomax, 1934. Informant/Performer Eight girls, Kirby Industrial School, Atmore, AL,1934. State:Alabama
**
1936- https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc9999005.1833.0
"Title: Miss Sue from Alabama
Contributor Names
Lomax, John Avery -- 1867-1948 (recordist)
Unidentified children (singer)
Created / Published: Taylor, Louisiana.
Subject Headings: - United States of America -- Louisiana -- Taylor
Notes
- Sung by Negro children with dancing. (statement of responsibility)
- With dancing.
- School Yard (venue)"
**
1942 - https://www.loc.gov/item/afc9999005.19203/ [audio recording]
"Miss Sue from Alabama
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WHAT "BETTY CROCKER" MEANS IN SOME CONTEMPORARY EXAMPLES OF "MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA"
Some contemporary versions of "Miss Sue From Alabama" in the USA include the lines "sittin in the rocker/eating Betty Crocker"/watching the clock go boom tick tock etc".
“Eatin Betty Crocker" means "eating Betty Crocker cookies or pastry", "Betty Crocker" is the invented name for a fictitious cook who represents the General Mills company. That name and character was first introduced in 1921. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Crocker "Betty Crocker" cookbooks contain easy to use recipes, including recipes for bake goods such as cookies, pies, and cakes. Thus "eating Betty Crocker" means eating some baked goods that were created by using a Betty Crocker recipe.
The word "rocker" is an abbreviation for "rocking chair" and the word "crocker" rhymes with the word "rocker".
Based on my admittedly informal collection efforts, it appears to me that "eatin Betty Crocker" versions of "Miss Sue From Alabama" are relatively recent (1990s?). Please share any examples of this rhyme that you remember with the phrase "Betty Crocker" that predate the 1990s. Thanks!
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AN EXAMPLE OF "MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA" THAT INCLUDES THE SCATTING PHRASE "A DOOBIE- DO-WAH
[no title given]
Miss Sue
Miss Sue
Miss Sue from Alabama
Someone is in your garden
Miss Sue
Miss Sue
Someone is in your garden
Miss Sue from Alabama
Show me what you can do
Miss Sue
Miss Sue
Show me what you can do
Miss sue from Alabama
Is this the way you do
Miss Sue
Miss Sue
Is this the way you do
Miss Sue from Alabama
Hey Hey
A doobie-do-wah
Your mama's broke
And your papa's broke
Turn to the east
Turn to the west
Turn to the very one you love the best
Milk in the pitcher
The butter's in the bowl
Can't catch a sweetheart
To save your soul
I think this is the way we sang this game in Northern Mississippi cira 1965.
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GUEST,nanasallthat, Folklore: Do kids still do clapping rhymes?, https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=63097 ; 11 Dec 07
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Italics are used to highlight this line.
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This is the earliest example of "Miss Sue From Alabama" with words that I've come across offline or online.
This contributor didn't include any racial demographic information. However, the textual structure and vernacular language of this example is clearly of African American origin. Notice that the contributor referred to rhyme as a "game". Also, notice the "show me your motion: and "I can do your motion" lines. These lines strongly suggest that this version of "Miss Sue From Alabama" was performed as a "show me your motion" circle game with one person in the center.
**
This example is composed of a number of lines from stand alone rhymes including a version of "Little Sally Walker" that is found in
https://www.loc.gov/folklife/LP/AfroAmFolkMusicMissL67_opt.pdf [B7 Sung with hand clapping by Nettie Mae and Aleneda Turner, near Senatobia, Mississippi, July 9,1971. Recorded by Cheryl Evans.]
"Little Sally Walker sitting in a saucer.
Rise, Sally, rise.
Wipe )'our weeping eyes.
Put your hand on your hip
And let your backbone slip.
Oh, shake it to the east.
Oh shake it to the west.
Oh, shake it to the one that you love the best
Your mama says so.
Your papa says so.
That's the way you do it,
and you'll never catch a beau.
The milk in the pitcher,
the butter ill the bowl.
You can't catch a sweetheart
to save your soul. "
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EXAMPLES OF "MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA THAT INCLUDE A "SCOOBY DOO" PHRASE/NAME
(with the name or words "Scooby do" given in italics to highlight that portion of the rhyme]
MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA (Version #1)
Miss Sue
Miss Sue from Alabama
Hey you,
scooby do
your Mama's got the measles
Your papa's got the flu
magic measles
magic flu
Take an a b c d e f g
Take an h i j k l m n o p
Take a smooth shot
Take a smooth shot
and now freeze.
-Eleanor Fulton, Pat Smith: Let's Slice The Ice, (Magnamusic-Baton, 1978; St. Louis, Mo.; p. 16)
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Rhymes in this compilation are from African American children in St. Louis, Missouri.
It's very likely that children who read this example think that the words "scooby doo" refer to the cartoon dog "Scooby Doo". However, I believe that those words were derived from the Jazz scatting term "scooby-doo- wah (or similar scatting terms) and were used for rhyming purposes ("doo" rhymes with "you"). Furthermore, I believe the name "Scooby Doo" came from that Jazz scatting term.
Here's information about the "Scooby Doo" cartoon character from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scooby-Doo
"Scooby-Doo is an American animated franchise comprising many animated television series produced from 1969 to the present, as well as their derivative media. Writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears created the original series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, for Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1969. This Saturday-morning cartoon series featured teenagers Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, and Norville "Shaggy" Rogers, and their talking brown Great Dane[1] named Scooby-Doo, who solve mysteries involving supposedly supernatural creatures through a series of antics and mis-steps.[2]”…
-end of quote-
Notice that the words "scooby doo" in this example isn't capitalized as they would be if they were names. Instead, the word "doo" is part of a Jazz scatting phrase that rhymes with the word "you" in the preceding line. That said, "Scooby Doo" is capitalized in the example given as #4 below.
**
I believe that "take a smooth shot" is a folk processed form of the phrase "take a flu shot".
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MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA (Version #2)
Miss Sue
Scooby Doo
Miss Sue from Alabama
Sittin at the table
peeling mashed potatoes.
Waitin for the clock to go
boom tick tock.
boom ticky wally wally.
Boom tick tock
Boom ticky wally wally.
Stop!
Ah 2 more time.
Boom tick tock.
Boom ticky wally wally.
Boom tick tock.
boom ticky wally wally.
Ah 1 more time.
Boom tick tock
Boom ticky wally wally
Boom tick tock.
Boom ticky wally wally.
Ah no more times.
-Alafia Children's Ensemble, Pittsburgh, PA; 1999 & 2001; Collected by Azizi Powell, 1999 & 2001 [Groups on both dates recited the same rhyme.]
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"Alafia Children's Ensemble" was the name of the children's cultural group that I founded in 1990. The group in Braddock, Pennsylvania was divided into components- one for girls and boys ages 5-12 years old in which the group learned, shared, and performed original and adapted African American game songs, cheers, and rhymes and one for girls and boys ages 10-14 years old in which children were introduced to playing the djembe drum. The group in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania consisted of girls ages 8-9 years old who learned, shared, and performed original and adapted African American game songs, cheers, and rhymes . A lot of the children's rhymes that I directly collected from 1990-2004 came from these groups.
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MISS SUE FROM PARRAMATTA (Example #3)
Miss Sue
Miss Sue
Miss Sue from Parramata
Hey you
Scooby-Doo
Your mother's got the measles
Your fathers got the flu
Magic measles magic flu
Take a abcdefg
Take a hijklmnop
Take a smooth shot
Take a smooth shot
And freeze.
-buttercup7956, Mar 19, 2011
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Here's information about Parramatta from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parramatta
"Parramatta … is a major commercial city[7][8] in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately 24 kilometres (15 mi) west of the Sydney central business district on the banks of the Parramatta River.[2] Parramatta is the administrative seat of the local government area of the City of Parramatta and is often regarded as the main commercial centre and the central business district for the broader Greater Western Sydney region.”…
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MISS SUE FROM PARRAMATTA (Example #4)
mine is
miss sue
miss sue
miss sue from parramata
hey you Scooby-Doo
your mother's got the measles
your fathers got the flu
magic measles magic flu
take a abcdefg
take a hijklmnop
take a smooth shot
take a smooth shot
and freeze. (×4)
-Gymnast Queen, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-svfUMX3BMMiss Sue Playground Song [discussion thread comment; discussion thread no longer available*], 2016
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*As per the policy of YouTube announced in Feb 2019, YouTube disabled almost all of the discussion threads for its videos featuring children *, including the one for the video whose link is given above. The admirably reason for this policy was to prevent "predatory comments". YouTube discussion threads were a treasure trove for contemporary examples of children's recreational rhymes. Unfortunately, almost all of the discussion threads for YouTube children's rhymes were deleted because of that policy. That action resulted in the lost of folkloric material and also means that the opportunities for people to share examples of and information about children's rhymes, game songs, and cheers online are greatly reduced.
All online versions of "Miss Sue From Parramatta" that I've come across don't include the "scooby doo" phrase/name, For instance, here's a link to another example of "Miss Sue From Parramata" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBmqEV2U6uA&ab_channel=ThomasTang. The brief summary statement indicates that the girl reciting this rhyme learned it in school. This version doesn't include the "Scooby Doo" phrase/name, but otherwise is the same as the other "Miss Sue From Parramatta" examples given in this post.
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ADDENDUM: SCATTING
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scat_singing
'In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all.[2][3] In scat singing, the singer improvises melodies and rhythms using the voice as an instrument rather than a speaking medium. This is different from vocalese, which uses recognizable lyrics that are sung to pre-existing instrumental solos.
Structure and syllable choice
Though scat singing is improvised, the melodic lines are often variations on scale and arpeggio fragments, stock patterns and riffs, as is the case with instrumental improvisers. As well, scatting usually incorporates musical structure. All of Ella Fitzgerald's scat performances of "How High the Moon", for instance, use the same tempo, begin with a chorus of a straight reading of the lyric, move to a "specialty chorus" introducing the scat chorus, and then the scat itself.[4] Will Friedwald has compared Ella Fitzgerald to Chuck Jones directing his Roadrunner cartoon—each uses predetermined formulas in innovative ways.[4]
The deliberate choice of scat syllables is also a key element in vocal jazz improvisation. Syllable choice influences the pitch articulation, coloration, and resonance of the performance.[5] Syllable choice also differentiated jazz singers' personal styles: Betty Carter was inclined to use sounds like "louie-ooie-la-la-la" (soft-tongued sounds or liquids) while Sarah Vaughan would prefer "shoo-doo-shoo-bee-ooo-bee" (fricatives, plosives, and open vowels).[6] The choice of scat syllables can also be used to reflect the sounds of different instruments. The comparison of the scatting styles of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan reveals that Fitzgerald's improvisation mimics[a] the sounds of swing-era big bands with which she performed, while Vaughan's mimics[b] that of her accompanying bop-era small combos.[10]"...
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This concludes Part II of this pancocojams post.
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