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Black Joker / Black, White, Yellow and Green

[ Roud 9212 ; DT BLWHYGR ; Mudcat 35877 ; trad.]

Black Joke or Black Joker is a Morris Dance tune, more precisely a stick dance from Bledington. The Etchingham Steam Band played Black Joker live at the Norwich Folk Festival in 1974; this was published in 1995 on the CD The Etchingham Steam Band.

The Albion Morris Men performed Black Joker to Shirley Collins singing the children’s rhyme Black, White, Yellow and Green on her and her sister Dolly’s 1976 album Amaranth. She also sang it live in London in 1979; the recording was published in 2006 on their CD Snapshots.

The Albion Dance Band finished their song The Postman’s Knock with the tune Black Joke in a John Peel / Top Gear BBC Radio 1 session recorded on 31 May 1977 and broadcast on 8 June 1977; this was published in 1993 on their CD The Albion Band Live in Concert, and in 1998 on The BBC Sessions. The Albion Dance Band also played both in 1977, Live at the Cambridge Folk Festival.

Archie Fisher and Lucy Cowan played Black Jock in 1977 on the tribute album to British Fylde guitars, Fylde Acoustic.

Dave Whetstone on concertina and Martin Carthy on guitar played Black Joke on the 1986 album An Hour With Cecil Sharp and Ashley Hutchings.

In 2002, Ashley Hutchings and chums recorded Black Joke for their CD Grandson of Morris On and Albion Morris with narrator Shirley Collins did it on their CD Still Dancing After All These Years.

Brian Peters played The White Joke / The Black Joke on his 2010 album Gritstone Serenade. He noted:

There were a number of dance tunes named after variously coloured Jokes (including red, yellow and blue ones) knocking around in the 18^th century, and several of them divided their 16 bars not into regular eights, but into six- and ten-bar A and B sections. The Black Joke was also the title of a very rude song (whether sung to this tune, I’m not sure) and is also well-known from Cotswold Morris. These are from the 200-year-old collection of Peak District publican and musician Thomas Watts, due for publication very soon now. Watts’ Black Joke starts off on the ‘wrong’ note, giving it an intriguingly fresh slant.

Pete Coe sang Black, White, Yellow and Green on his 2011 album of children songs, Tall Tailes. He noted:

This song works best if you make up sume actions to illustrate the words. You can get some signs from Makaton or British Sign Language to get you started, then you can make up other signs and actions yourself.

Lyrics

Shirley Collins sings Black, White, Yellow and Green

There was an old woman who kept fat hogs,
She made plum puddings to poison the dogs,
They were black, white, yellow and green.

She took them, put them in the pot,
Boiled them until they were blazing hot,
They were black, white, yellow and green.

Chorus:
Black, white, yellow and green,
Black, white, yellow and green,
The crudest plum puddings that ever was seen,
They were black, white, yellow and green.

She took a pin and pricked the skin,
The gravy ran out and the maggots ran in,
They were black, white, yellow and green.

She took them, put them on the floor,
They each in turn ran out of the door,
They were black, white, yellow and green.

She put them on the fire to cook,
They did the black joke, were covered in soot,
Black, white, yellow and green.

She took them, put them up on the shelf,
If you want any more, you can see to yourself,
Black, white, yellow and green.

Pete Coe sings Black, White, Yellow and Green

Now there was an old woman who kept five hogs
She made plum puddings to feed the dogs

Chorus:
They were black, white, yellow and green
Black, white, yellow and green
Sure the rarest plum puddings you ever have seen
They were black, white, yellow and green

And she took ’em and put them down in a pot
And boiled them ’til they were blazing hot

And she baked them ’til they were blazing red
There was one like leather, the other like lead

Now she took a pin and pricked the skin
And the gravy ran out and the maggots ran in

And she took them and put them down on the floor
And each in turn ran out of the door

And she took ’em and put them on the shelf
If you want any more just help yourself