"Blue Tail Fly", "De Blue Tail Fly", or "Jimmy Crack Corn" is thought to be a blackface minstrel song, first performed in the United States in the 1840s that remains a popular children's song today.
Over the years, many variants of text have appeared, but the basic narrative remains intact. On the surface, the song is a black slave's lament over his master's death. The song, however, has a subtext of rejoicing over that death, and possibly having caused it by deliberate negligence.
Most versions at least nod to idiomatic African English, though sanitized, Standard English versions predominate today.
The blue-tail fly mentioned in the song is probably Tabanus atratus, a species of horse-fly found in the American South.
As it feeds on the blood of animals such as horses and cattle, as well as humans, it constitutes a prevalent pest in agricultural regions. This species of horse-fly has a blue-black abdomen, hence the name.
Lyrics:
In one early version, the idyllic (yet ironic) scene is set thus:
When I was young I us'd to wait
On the boss and hand him his plate;
and Pass down the bottle when he got dry,
And brush away the blue tail fly.
refrain (repeated each verse):
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care,
My master's gone away.
In the two verses that follow, the singer is told to protect his master's horse from the bite of the blue-tail fly:
An' when he ride in de afternoon,
I foiler wid a hickory broom;
De poney being berry shy,
When bitten by de blue tail fly.
One day he rode aroun' de farm,
De flies so numerous dey did swarm;
One chanced to bite 'im on the thigh.
De debble take dat blue tail fly.
The horse bucks and the master is killed. The slave then escapes culpability:
De pony run, he jump an' pitch,
An' tumble massa in de ditch;
He died, an' de jury wonder'd why;
De verdic was de blue tail fly.
The reference to a "jury" and a "verdict" does not imply that the slave was charged with any crime. Some sources indicate this may have referred to a coroner's inquest or police investigation; however, these "slang" terms were not used outside the context of a court proceeding at the time.
They buried him 'neath the sycamore tree
His epitaph there for to see
"Beneath this stone I'm forced to lie
The victim of a blue-tailed Fly."

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