Camptown Races
"Camptown Races", sometimes mistakenly referred to as Camptown Ladies, is a comic song in broad, stereotyped negro "dialect" by Stephen Foster, published in 1850 in Foster's Plantation Melodies as sung by the Christy & Campbell Minstrels and New Orleans Serenaders, Written Composed and Arranged by Stephen C. Foster (Baltimore: F. D. Benteen; New Orleans: W. T. Mayo, 1850). The Camptown of Foster's own experience was in Pennsylvania, but a "camptown", or tent city was a temporary workingmen's accommodation familiar in many parts of the United States, especially along the rapidly expanding railroad network. The rag-tag mix of horses that are racing, and the disorder of the racing conditions at the ramshackle camptown track provide the fun, with the usual unspoken undercurrent of superiority among the entertained hearers.
In pop culture
- In Blazing Saddles, white railroad bosses attempt to cajole black laborers to sing the song (called "Camptown Ladies" in the movie), but the workers feign ignorance of it.
- It is Foghorn Leghorn's favorite song.
- On a 2000 Episode of Oz, Unit Manager Tim McManus sings the song at the funeral of an African American staff member prompting the African American Warden Leo Glynn to fire him immediately.
- The Squirrel Nut Zippers song "The Ghost of Stephen Foster" appropriately mentions Camptown Races and uses some of its lyrical structure.
Lyrics
- De Camptown ladies sing dis song, Doo-dah! doo-dah!
- De Camptown race-track five miles long, Oh, doo-dah day!
- I come down dah wid my hat caved in, Doo-dah! doo-dah!
- I go back home wid a pocket full of tin, Oh, doo-dah day!
- chorus
- Gwine to run all night!
- Gwine to run all day!
- I'll bet my money on de bob-tail nag,
- Somebody bet on de bay.
- De long tail filly and de big black hoss, Doo-dah! doo-dah!
- Dey fly de track and dey both cut across, Oh, doo-dah-day!
- De blind hoss sticken in a big mud hole, Doo-dah! doo-dah!
- Can't touch bottom wid a ten foot pole, Oh, doo-dah-day!
- chorus
- Old muley cow come on to de track, Doo-dah! doo-dah!
- De bob-tail fling her ober his back, Oh, doo-dah-day!
- Den fly along like a rail-road car, Doo-dah! doo-dah!
- Runnin' a race wid a shootin' star, Oh, doo-dah-day!
- chorus
- See dem flyin' on a ten mile heat, Doo-dah doo-dah!
- Round de race track, den repeat, Oh, doo-dah-day!
- I win my money on de bob-tail nag, Doo-dah! doo-dah!
- I keep my money in an old tow-bag, Oh, doo-dah-day!
- chorus
Reference
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