Do Your Ears Hang Low?

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Do Your Ears Hang Low? (Roud 15472) is a children's song that is often sung in schools, at camps and at birthday parties. According to Wikipedia, melody is usually a shorter version of "Turkey in the Straw", but it can also be sung to the tune of the "Sailor's Hornpipe", or "The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers". A common belief is that the lyrics refer to the long ears of a hound. It appears considerably more likely, however, that the song originated as the obscene "Do Your Balls Hang Low?", and was later sanitized.

Lyrics

The following lyrics are from one particular variant of the song:

Do your ears hang low?

Do they wobble to and fro?

Can you tie 'em in a knot?

Can you tie 'em in a bow?

Can you throw 'em o'er your shoulder

Like a Continental soldier?

Do your ears hang low?


Do your ears stand high?

Do they reach up to the sky?

Do they droop when they are wet?

Do they stiffen when they're dry?

Can you wave them at your neighbor

With an element of flavor?

Do your ears stand high?


Do your ears flip-flop?

Can you use them as a mop?

Are they stringy at the bottom?

Are they curly at the top?

Can you use them for a swatter?

Can you use them for a blotter?

Do your ears flip-flop?


Do your ears stick out?

Can you waggle them about?

Can you flap them up and down

As you fly around the town?

Can you shut them up for sure

When you hear an awful bore?

Do your ears stick out?


Do your ears give snacks?

Are they all filled up with wax?

Do you eat it in the morning

Do you eat it in the bath?

Do you eat it with a scone

Or do you eat it on its own?

Do your ears give snacks?


Do your ears fall off?

Do they dangle when you cough?

Can you juggle them for fun?

And put them back when you are done?

Can you do some origami?

Can you chew them like salami?

Do your ears fall off?

History

The ice cream truck song’s melody comes from “Turkey in the Straw,” an adaptation of an old British folk song. It was popularized in the United States in the early 1800s under the title “Zip Coon,” where it accompanied an infamous blackface character of the same name parodying a free black man attempting to fit in with American high society. Although some versions of “Turkey in the Straw” version contained inoffensive lyrics about pastoral America, the melody continued to be associated with overtly racist lyrics in other versions of the song. NPR’s report resurfaced a 1916 version, “Nigger Love A Watermelon Ha! Ha! Ha!”.[1] with a chorus written below:

Nigger love a watermelon ha ha, ha ha!

Nigger love a watermelon ha ha, ha ha!

For here, they're made with a half a pound of co'l

There's nothing like a watermelon for a hungry coon

The song was written by actor Harry C. Browne and played on the familiar depiction of black people as mindless beasts of burden greedily devouring slices of watermelon, and released in March 1916 by Columbia Records.[2] For his creation, Browne simply used the well-known melody of the early 19th century song "Turkey in the Straw," which dates to the even older and traditional British song "The (Old) Rose Tree." In the late 1820s, the music was given new lyrics, which dripped with racism, and titled "Zip Coon." The blackface character of the same name parodied a free black man attempting to conform to white high society by dressing in fine clothes and using big words. Fifty years later in post-bellum America, the character became an archetype of the black urbanite and propelled minstrel shows to the height of their popularity. Zip Coon was the city-slicker counterpart to the dimwitted, rural blackface character whose name became infamous in 20th century America: Jim Crow. These two characters would often interact onstage and were the inspiration for the hugely successful Amos 'n' Andy act decades later.[3]

References