Rooftop Reviews: "The Blue Tail Fly"

Friday, January 16, 2015

"The Blue Tail Fly" - Revisited

We learned this song in elementary school. The other day I was playing it on guitar, when I stopped as I realized the words and their full import. This song was sung far and wide when I was growing up, and in some places it is still a staple of childhood rhyme schemes. I have no problem with it, as the children singing it usually have no idea of what the lyrics mean. Some folks even think that the lyrics are two separate songs.

The above live performance by Burl Ives is a bit out of synch. I could have used another clip, but this one from 1964 shows just how out of synch most of America was regarding race relations at the same time as the country was experiencing massive racial unrest. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 had yet to be passed, and the events in Selma, Alabama were still a year away.

Some folks have objected to this songs continued use in schools due to the racial overtones of the lyrics. The main character is a slave who tends to his masters every need. Some find that offensive. But listen more closely and you will realize that this song makes sport of the master’s dependence upon his servant, who actually may have played a small part in his own demise. The last verse is the best, and if you remove the quotation marks from the epitaph then the whole meaning changes. Instead of an epitaph it becomes a confession on the part of the servant.

As the world evolves, changes get made and things get lost. I hope that the people who object to this song will stop and really hear it for what it is; it’s a satire about the people who only think that they are in charge, but haven’t got a clue. If they did, then the blue tail fly could never have hurt them.

“The Blue Tail Fly” by Elie Siegmeister and Walter F. Kerr

When I was young I used to wait

On my master and hand him his plate

And Pass the bottle when he got dry

And brush away the blue-tail fly.