The song Old Dan Tucker has a long history in the United States, going back to the minstrel shows of the 1840s. Martha highly recommends the documentary Ethnic Notions about our country’s complicated history with racially-charged imagery in theater and song, and the evolution of racial consciousness in America. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Old Dan Tucker”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Yes, I’m James Winans.
I was raised at Alvord, Texas. That’s a little town about 50 miles north of Fort Worth, Texas. Raised on a farm, didn’t have any electricity, didn’t have any running water, and just made the best of it. I was all happy.
You sound a lot like my dad, James.
Yeah, I have a question that I wanted to ask. If maybe someone knew where some of the old sayings come from.
Okay.
Some of the old riddle songs that our folks used to sing to us. My daddy used to sing to us when he was little. It went, old Dan Tucker was a fine old man. He washed his face in the frying pan. He combed his hair with a wagon wheel, and he died with a toothache in his heel.
That’s great. I always wondered where that come from.
Well, did he sing it to you or did he just recite it like a poem or a little ditty?
He had his foot on the floor and slapped his hands on his knees and sang it to us.
Oh, he did? He sang it to you?
Yeah.
And did he sing any other verses?
No, that was about it.
Okay.
Well, we can tell you, James, that there’s a long tradition for this song. It goes back to the 1840s or so, and there are lots and lots and lots and lots of versions and lots and lots and lots of verses.
Yeah. That was in the 40s when he was saying that to us.
Mm—
How far back does the songs go, you think?
It goes back to the 1840s.
You weren’t around in those 40s, were you, James?
Oh, I liked a little being there. They sure enough didn’t have runny water. They drank out of the creek, I guess.
Did y’all ever talk about the song or the meaning of it or anything?
No, no. We just laugh and go on.
Yeah, old Dan Tucker is a little bit of a character. He almost always does these fantastical things that a real person can’t quite do, or he gets into trouble that a real person couldn’t quite get out of.
Yeah. All kinds of crazy things happening.
That’s right.
Well, there are lots of versions of that song now. If you go on the Internet, you can hear a lot of different people singing it. If you think of any more verses of the song that your daddy sang to you, we’d love to hear about them. And another time, you want to give us another call or send us an email, we’d be happy to hear it, all right?
All righty. Take care now. Y’all have a good time.
You too. Bye-bye.
Okay, bye-bye.
What we didn’t get into, Grant, was the fact that the song goes back to the minstrel tradition and white performers performing in blackface. And I can’t help but mention and highly, highly, highly recommend the documentary Ethnic Notions. Have you seen that?
No, I haven’t.
By Marlon Riggs. It’s an Emmy Award winning documentary about depictions of African Americans in history. And it’s a 1987 documentary, but it’s not easy to watch, but it sort of puts this song into perspective.
All right.
If you’ve got a question about something your daddy used to sing to you or something that your mama used to say, give us a call, 877-929-9673, or send us email to words@waywordradio.org.
