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Buffalo Gals

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Note: a second part of this article is available presenting further research: “Who Were Those Gals?: Buffalo Gals Revisited,” Folklife Today, August 17, 2020.

“Buffalo Gals” is an example of a song with a complicated “life.” Tracing the background of an old folksong or folk tune can be difficult, and often its origins can only be surmised. But what we do know can give pause for thought about cultural history, in this case, the culture of American song.

Buffalo Gals sheet music cover showing minstrels in black face. Music Division. Select the photo for more information and to view the music.
Sheet music cover for “Buffalo Gals,” published in 1848. Music Division, Library of Congress. Select the link for more information and the sheet music.

Like many songs and tunes, “Buffalo Gals” seems to have slipped back and forth between popular published versions and those sung or played and learned by ear. Historians often begin with a date that can be confirmed, and so the origin of this song is often given as having been composed by the minstrel show performer John Hodges under his stage name “Cool White” in 1844. The lyrics are somewhat different, as shown by the title: “Lubly Fan Will You Cum Out To Night?” [sic] (Lubly Fan is Lovely Fanny).[1] It is an early example of a song sung by a white man who performed in black face using a mock African American dialect. Just one year later another white group who performed in black face, The Ethiopian Serenaders, published sheet music for “Philadelphia Gals,” (1845) with similar lyrics and no attribution for a composer or lyricist. Minstrel singers often changed the name of the song to reflect the name of the town where they performed, in order to appeal to local audiences. In 1848, The Ethiopian Serenaders published another version, “Buffalo Gals” (presumably for Buffalo, New York), also unattributed. This is the first sheet music version of the song as it is most familiar to us today.

While many sources attribute the song to John Hodges without further questioning, folklorists have expressed doubt about this history. The fact that the Ethiopian Serenaders gave no attribution for the music or lyrics is just one clue that this story may be wrong. Folk songs and minstrel show songs were often in oral circulation long before they appeared in published form, so first publication is not necessarily a reliable indication of a song’s age or the composer. It was not uncommon for the person who first transcribed a song to claim authorship, especially in the nineteenth century. The lyrics “Lubly Fan will you cum out to night?” may well be original to John Hodges. But the lyrics of “Buffalo Gals,” “Philadelphia Gals,” and other versions might have been circulated among minstrel performers prior to that and given Hodges the idea for his own version. Versions of the song may even have existed in oral tradition before “Lubly Fan” or “Buffalo Gals” appeared on minstrel stages.

Fiddle players in parts of Virginia and West Virginia call this tune “Round Town Gals,” “Round Town Girls,” or “Midnight Serenade.”  In 1987 Chris Goertzen and Alan Jabbour published an article that traced the tune to an 1839 publication of dance tunes, Virginia Reels, Selected and Arranged for the Piano Forte, by G.P. Knauff with the title “Midnight Serenade,” providing evidence that the melody existed as a dance tune in this region before the minstrel show song versions were published.[2] Here is a version of “Round Town Gals” as performed by Virginia fiddler Henry Reed, recorded by Alan Jabbour in 1966.

As Goertzen and Jabbour pointed out in their article, the titles “Round Town Gals” and “Midnight Serenade” suggest the possibility that calling girls to come out and dance may be the point of the tune as it is in the song “Buffalo Gals,” and that there may have been similar lyrics that preceded minstrel show versions as well. Was there a song or a dance call that asked “Round town gals won’t you come out tonight and dance by the light of the moon?” Unless other evidence of earlier lyrics turns up, this is a speculative, but tantalizing idea.

George Vinton Graham seated with guitar
George Vinton Graham, who sang and composed the lyrics for “Buffalo Gals at Nome.” Photo ca. 1938-1939. Forms part of The WPA California Folk Music Project Collection.

I am fascinated by what happened after the publication of “Buffalo Gals” in 1848. One common assertion about the popular publication of folk songs is that publication creates a static, privileged version that ends the folk process of innovation. But “Buffalo Gals” is an example that challenges this idea. The song continued to have place names swapped out for local names. For instance, in his notes on the Henry Reed recording, Alan Jabbour notes that there is also an “Alabama Gals” version. But “Buffalo Gals” is a phrase that commonly stuck with the song as it traveled around the United States, far from Buffalo, New York. Who are those buffalo gals?  The bison is a symbol of America, especially the American west. As the song takes on new life, the “gals” may be women of the west, pioneers, cowgirls, or perhaps fancy women. Listen to this version, “Buffalo Gals at Nome,” sung by George Vinton Graham and recorded by Sidney Robertson Cowell in 1939. Graham says that he composed the lyrics. His voice is no longer vigorous and he tunes his guitar in an eccentric fashion, but makes up for this with great enthusiasm. The song is about a prospector who went off to the Nome, Alaska gold rush of 1899 and came back empty handed. So in this example “buffalo” is not a place, Nome is the place, and buffalo gals are pioneer women of Alaska.

In 1944 a new set of lyrics were written for the song by Tony Pastor, called “Dancing with a Dolly.” He removed the town name “Buffalo,” updated some of the familiar lyrics, and added lines about dancing with “a dolly with a hole in her stocking.” This was popularized by the Andrews Sisters, and then performed by many celebrated singers. Though well-known, this version did not supplant those in oral tradition. Folk versions continued to use “buffalo” in the chorus, which indicates how important the word buffalo had become. But the lines about “dancing with the dolly” were sometimes added. This was common in the folksong revival versions and Pete Seeger sang the song in this way.[3]

The phrase “Buffalo Gals” has become an American expression, though its meaning varies. It appears in titles of books about women of the west, such as Buffalo Gals: Women Of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, by Chris Enss, (2005) and in fiction, such as the novelette, Buffalo Gals Won’t You Come Out Tonight, by Ursula Le Guin (1987)  about an injured child lost in the western desert where extraordinary things happen to aid her survival.[4] Now and then a work does place the theme back in Buffalo, New York, such as A. R. Gurney’s play Buffalo Gal (2008).  It seems likely that both the song “Buffalo Gals” and the hopes and dreams conjured up by the title will continue to fire the  imagination.

Notes

  1. Sheet music for “Lubly Fan Will You Cum Out To Night?” is available online from The Sheridan Libraries at Johns Hopkins University: Levy Sheet Music Collection, Box 020, Item 028.
  2. Goertzen, Chris and Alan Jabbour, “George P. Knauff’s Virginia Reels and Fiddling in the Antebellum South,” American Music, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Summer, 1987). Indiana University Press, pp. 133-134.
  3. This version of “Buffalo Gals” can be found on American Favorite Ballads, Vols. 1-5, sung by Pete Seeger. Smithsonian Folkways, 2009, SFW40155.
  4. This story was published in the November 1987 issue of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, (pp. 131-158) and was collected in Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences in the same year.

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Comments (14)

  1. Enjoyed the article very much.

    I wonder if Joni Mitchell got this lyric below (from “Help Me”)

    You dance with the lady
    With the hole in her stocking

    from this song.

    steve

    • Thanks for your comment. I think that probably is the reference she was making in the song. It is lyric that many people would know, and certainly gets her point across.

      Stephanie

  2. I’m wondering if the song might have its origins with early settlers who brought the melody from Europe – it has a stunning resemblance with the German folksong “Ging ein Weiblein Nüsse schütteln”!

    • Thank you for your comment. It seems likely that the tune was a European dance tune, and Germany is a possible source. The trouble is that such tunes travel and change as they go. It is difficult to be sure that it originated with any particular song. What we find today may be parallel descendants from an older source. But here is another German example, available in the National Jukebox: a 1923 Victor recording of “Im Grunewald ist Holzauktion,” performed by the International Novelty Quartet and credited to composer Max Eichler: http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/recordings/detail/id/9555?loclr=blogflt

  3. First time I heard the phrase “Buffalo Gals” was a 1982 hip-hop single released by Malcolm McLaren. I never really knew what it meant. I happened to receive some Buffalo Tallow soap and it got me thinking about the meaning of the phrase. Thank you for the detailed explanation. Very interesting read.

  4. What was Edgar Bucanhan singing in the chorus of the song in the 1941 version of Texas…he did not song “Buffalo Gals”…it sounded like ” chit chit chit”?

  5. It may have been a cleaned up account, but when I was a child in Texas I was told that it was based on an old cowboy legend that on moonlit nights on the prairie, sometimes the spirits of sleeping buffalo would emerge in the form of beautiful young girls and dance in the moonlight.

  6. Stephanie,
    I have made an art quilt entitled “Buffalo Gal” for a traveling exhibition entitled “Fly Me to the Moon” which is in celebration of the first moon walk and made in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of the July 20th, 1969 landing. This quilt was made under a moon related folk songs category. The quilts will be traveling to various venues thru 2020. There will also be a book coming out featuring many of the quilts. I would like your permission to reference your article in my artist statements for this book and to quote a small portion of the article and would like to be sure to give you proper credit as well. Thank you!

  7. Do you have any idea who is singing the song on the record in “It’s a Wonderful Life”
    I know they used a prop record in the movie that shows “Arthur Black and his Orchestra” but Arthur Black is the Assistant Director of the movie. 🙂

  8. “Buffalo Gals” must have the same origin as “Buffalo Soldiers,” referring to Black people.

    • Thanks for your comment. Because we have sheet music and lyrics for the song from the period when the song arose with different cities in the lyrics such as New York Gals, Charleston Gals, etc. it is clear that the meaning originally was Buffalo, New York. The song was changed for the location where it was performed. People have thought of it as having other meanings more recently.

  9. Watched a rerun of Bonanza today. Simon Oakland’s killer whistles “New Orleans Woman” which may or nay not be another actual version. Possibly just an artistic choice renamed for the show.

  10. Found this excellent analysis after reading Leguin’s mythic (and mysterious) short story. Thank you for the deep dive. It was helpful in making folk connections to that tale

  11. I have listened to a version of this performed by Woody Guthrie which caused me to do a little research as to the origins. I thought there may have been a connection to the term Buffalo Soldiers. A fascinating article on its history,thank you for the information.

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