Songs About Cabbage

Went up on the mountain
Just to give my horn a blow
Thought I heard my true love say
Yonder comes my beau

Chorus:
Bile dem cabbage down
Turn dem hoecakes round
The only song that I can sing
Is bile dem cabbage down

Took my gal to the blacksmith shop
To have her mouth made small
She turned around a time or two
And swallowed shop and all

Possum in a 'simmon tree
Raccoon on the ground
Raccoon says you son-of-a-gun
Shake some 'simmons down

Someone stole my old 'coon dog
Wish they'd bring him back
He chased the big hogs through the fence
And the little ones through the crack

Met a possum in the road
Blind as he could be
Jumped the fence and whipped my dog
And bristled up at me

Once I had an old gray mule
His name was Simon Slick
He'd roll his eyes and back his ears
And how that mule would kick

How that mule would kick
He kicked with his dying breath
He shoved his hind feet down his throat
And kicked himself to death

Raccoon has a bushy tail,
Possum's tail is bare,
Rabbit's got no tail at all
But a little bunch of hair.

Raccoon and the possum
Rackin' cross the prairie,
Raccoon ax the possum
Did she want to marry?

Possum is a cunning thing,
He travels in the dark,
And never thinks to curl his tail
Till he hears old Rover bark.

Possum up a 'simmon tree
Raccoon on the ground
Raccoon says to the possum,
Won't you shake them 'simmons down?

Jaybird died with the whoopin' cough,
Sparrow died with the colic.
Along come the frog with a fiddle on his back,
Inquirin' his way to the frolic.

From Lomax; Folk Songs of North America, adapted from the singing of Peggy Seeger.
- Folk & Traditional Song Lyrics

I'm goin' back south
In New Orleans
Get myself some a-them
Cabbage greens

Ooh, them greens
Yes, them greens
Oh, them greens
They call them, cabbage greens

I like my cabbage
Like a horse likes grass
'Cause they
Is right in my class

Ooh, them greens
Yes, them greens
Oh, them greens
They call them, cabbage greens

'Beat it out, boy'

(instrumental & sax)

'I love my cabbage'

Give me cabbage
For my dinner
Cabbage, for my desert
Oh, when I don't get my cabbage
Boy, how it hurt!

Ooh, them greens
Yes, them greens
Oh, them greens
They call them, cabbage greens

My wife woke up at night
Hurts me in the side
Says, 'Get up here, daddy
I've got yo' cabbage, fried'

Ooh, them greens
Yes, them greens
Oh, them greens
They call them, cabbage greens

(instrumental & sax)

When you give me greens
An don't give me no meat
Woman, you know that's one thing
Knock me off my feet

Ooh, them greens
Yes, them greens
Oh, them greens
They call them, cabbage greens
Washboard Sam Good Old Cabbage Greens Lyrics

I've always been a farmer and
My heart's bound to the land
The earth's deep roots, are in me blood
She answers to my hand.
I grow the best damned cabbages
You ever hope to see
And once upon a moon struck night
I watched the dancing sidhe.
Their music came before them
And it pulled me from me bed
It flowed like cool wine on the breeze
And got inside me head.
It made me drunk and sober both,
It made me sing and cry,
It made me want to weep and dance
And dream that I could fly.
And then their voices, caroling
Like bells, like birds, like rain
In words I almost understood
In joy too near to pain.
The songs were like the ones you hear
In dreams but can't recall,
That fill your mind in slumber

But with dawn you lose it all.
And then they came so wondrous bright
So quite beyond compare,
With star-shine in their eyes
And silver roses in their hair,
Wrapped with an aching beauty
Sweet and bitter, crystal light
A beauty that ya' fear to see
But fear to lose the sight.
I saw them at their dancing
Leaping air and silver flame,
And conscious, all too conscious
Of my clumsy mortal frame.
I watched them at their dancing
Life light footed, full of grace
With my legs of wood and feet of lead
Stood rooted in me place.
[Interlude]
I am a farmer bound to earth
I know what I do well,
I'm mortal and I'm common
Like the cabbages I sell
There's virtue in a cabbage
Even elves eat, I suppose,
But once just once, I wish that I
Could grow a silver rose.
- Mercedes Lackey - Of Cabbages lyrics