Mike Moxcey ©2005

Bile Dem Cabbage Down

This is one of the first songs taught in many books because it is a very regular 3 chord song. Also, the verse and the chorus are the same.

I / IV / | I / V / |I / IV / | V / I / |

1. Went up on the mountain
to give my horn a blow.
Thought I heard my true love say,
"Yonder comes my beau."

ch: Bile dem cabbage down, boys,
bake them hoecakes brown.
The only tune that I can sing is
"Bile Dem Cabbage Down."

Here it is written out in a few of the common keys.

C / F / | C / G / |C / F / | G / C / |

D / G / | D / A / |D / G / | A / D / |

G / C / | G / D / |G / C / | D / G / |

A / D / | A / E / |A / D / | E / A / |

2. Took my gal to the blacksmith shop to get her mouth made small.
She turned around a time or two and swallowed shop and all.

3. Raccoon up in a 'simmon tree, possum on the ground.
Possum yells up to that coon, "Throw some 'simmons down."

4. Someone stole my old coon dog wish they'd bring him back.
He chased the big hogs through the fence, the little ones through the crack.

5. Met a possum in the road blind as he could be.
Jumped the fence and whipped my dog and bristled up at me.

6. Once I had an old gray mule his name was Simon Slick.
He'd roll his eyes and back his ears and how that mule could kick.

7. How that mule could kick! He kicked with his dying breath.
He shoved his hind feet down his throat and kicked himself to death.

8. I've heard some folks tell there's gold in them thar hills,
but I've lived up here forty years and all I seen was stills.

9. There's gold in them thar hills. I know it for the truth,
for my sweet gal she fell up there and lost her new front tooth.

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