/

lyrics

Frankie and Johnny
Poem Sterling A. Brown. Music Cornelius Eady


Oh Frankie and Johnny were lovers
Oh Lordy how they did love!

Old Ballad

Frankie was a half-wit, Johnny was a nigger,
Frankie liked to pain poor creatures as a little ‘un,
Kept a crazy love of torment when she got bigger,
Johnny had to slave it and never had much fun.

Frankie liked to pull wings of living butterflies,
Frankie liked to cut long angleworms in half;
Frankie liked to whip curs and listen to their drawn out cries,
Frankie liked to shy stones at the brindle calf.

Frankie took her pappy’s lunch week-days to the sawmill,
Her pappy, red-faced cracker, with a cracker’s thirst,
Beat her skinny body and reviled the hateful imbecile,
She screamed at every blow he struck, but tittered when
he curst.

Frankie had to cut through Johnny’s field of sugar corn
Used to wave at Johnny, who didn’t ‘pay no min’ –
Had had to work like fifty from the day that he was born,
And wan’t no cracker hussy gonna put his work behind –

But everyday Frankie swung along the cornfield lane,
And one day Johnny helped her partly through the wood,
Once he had dropped his plow lines, he dropped them many
times again,
Though his mother didn’t know it, else she’d have whipped
him good.

Frankie and Johnny were lovers, oh Lordy how they did love!
But one day Frankie’s pappy by a big log laid him low,
To find out what his crazy Frankie had been speaking of;
He found that what his gal had muttered was exactly so.

Frankie, she was spindly limbed with corn silk on her crazy
head,
Johnny was a nigger, who never had much fun---
They swung up Johnny on a tree, and filled his swinging hide
with lead,
And Frankie yowled hilariously when the thing was done.

credits

from THE STERLING BROWN PROJECT: CORNELIUS EADY & ROUGH MAGIC with Rowan Ricardo Phillips, released January 18, 2021
CE: Vocal
Robin Messing: Vocal
Emma Alabaster, Electric Bass and Vocal
Charlie Rauh: Electric Guitar
Leo Ferguson: Drums and Percussion

Track Arranged by Rough Magic

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Cornelius Eady image

Cornelius Eady New York, New York

Cornelius Eady is the author of 8 books of poetry, lives in NYC and is the co-founder of Cave Canem. The band Rough Magic came out of the sessions for his CD/Chapbook BOOK OF HOOKS. (Kattywompus Press, Jan. 2013)

contact / help

Contact Cornelius Eady

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Cornelius Eady, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featured guests are the golden-voiced Baby Rose and psyche soulsters Brainstory.
listen now