Pickin' On Your Baby

Title

Pickin' On Your Baby

Description

V1 “Mammy Why” said Pickaninny, crying to his mammy Jinny “Do the white boys pick on me Tell me why they never let me be And I must not play in their yard, Ain’t I just, as nice as they are They won’t let me in their games And they call me names V2 Mammy please, just tell your Sammy, ain’t I sweet as choc’late candy? When I stay where I belong Even then there’s always something wrong You know why But you won’t tell me, Don’t you cry for that won’t help me They don’t take me where they go And I want to know C Are they pickin’ on your baby, ‘Cause I’m a “pickaninny rose” Mammy don’t they know that they should not treat me so Don’t they know that ev’ry dark cloud inside is silv’ry lined Mammy why are they pickin’ on me all the time Won’t you tell them all about me Ain’t I the sweetest rose that grows That’s what you said and I suppose you know Now ain’t that so? Day by day in ev’ry way when they get together, They go from bad to worse instead of getting better, Are they pickin’ on your baby, ‘Cause I’m a pickaninny rose Are they

Creator

Paul V. Reynolds (words), Billy James (music)

Date

1925

Files

Citation

Paul V. Reynolds (words), Billy James (music), “Pickin' On Your Baby,” The Baseball Sheet Music Project, accessed March 29, 2024, https://baseballsheetmusic.omeka.net/items/show/49.