My Gal is a High Born Lady

This song uses racist language and draws on stereotypes in a way that was commonplace at the time but is no longer acceptable today.

AKA My girl …
First Published 1896
Writer/composer Barney Fagan (adapted by Richard Morton) Roud RN21078

Music Hall Performers Eugene Stratton
Folk performances Collected from the singing of:
Herrington, Delmar; USA : Tennessee, 1980
Macon, Uncle Dave; USA : Tennessee; 1926		 

Original US version
My Gal is a High Born Lady
(Barney Fagan)

Thar' is gwine to be a festival this evenin'
And a gatherin' of color mighty rare
Thar'll be noted individuals of prominent distinctiveness
To permeate the colored atmosphere;
Sunny Africa's Four Hundred's gwine to be thar
To do honor to my lovely fiancee,
Thar will be a grand ovation of especial ostentation
When the parson gives the dusky bride a way!

My gal is a high born lady
She's black but not too shady
Feathered like a peacock, just as gay,
She is not colored, she was born that way,
I'm proud of my black Venus,
No coon can come between us
'Long the line they can't out shine this high born gal of mine.

When the preacher man propounds the vital question,
"Does ye' take the gal' for better or for wuss?"
I will feel as if my soul had left my body, gone to glory,
And I know my heart will make an awful fuss,
I anticipates a very funny feelin'
Nigger's eyeball, like a diamond sure to shine,
But I'll bask in honeyed clover, when the ceremony's over,
And I press the ruby lips of baby mine)



As adapted for Eugene Stratton by Richard Morton:

There is gwine to be a festival this evening,
It's the most exclusive function of the year;
There'll be noted individuals of prominent distinctiveness
To permeate the coloured atmosphere.
Only black folks of the bluest blood will be there,
To do honour to my lovely fiancee-
There will be a grand ovation of especial ostentation,
When the parson gives the dusky bride away.

My gal is a high born lady
She's black but not too shady
Feathered like a peacock, just as gay,
She is not colored, she was born that way,
I'm proud of my black Venus,
No coon can come between us
They know she belongs to me
This high born gal of mine.

She's a wench that don't eat dinner with her fingers,
'Cept she asks to be allowed to pick a bone;
en she does it in a manner of remarkable refinery,
With her little finger cocked by way of tone.
When she promenades with Ma to Church on Sunday, 
Folks can see she's in society indeed;
But she gives them a reminder, when she swings her skirts behind her—
'Deed, the movement's emblematical of breed!

She's a girl that's most punctilious in her habits, 
First time she let me kiss her was to-day ;
When I tasted all the sweetness of her classic physiognomy,
I didn't want to tear myself away.
I declare to goodness I gets mighty flustered,
And I don't know if to cry or if to laugh,
To think she'll be my honey when I've paid the parson's money—
Such a lady for a dollar-and-a-half.

An American comic song from the late 19th century which based its humour on racist stereotypes of African Americans, at the time such songs were known as “coon songs”. The song was a huge hit throughout the English-speaking world, and a version for British Music Hall was written for UK audiences by Richard Morton. It was performed by blackface Music Hall comedian Eugene Stratton.

The song has been collected from traditional singers in America.

Sources: