When I first was learning cajun accordion, I was greatly inspired by Boozoo Chavis. I have been revisiting some of his songs recently.

I am picking up now on Tee Black, which I had not tried to play or sing before.

It is not played on the cajun accordion - Boozoo uses a triple row for this song. He plays it using the triple row equivalent of the third position.

But, my point here is the lyrics, not the accordion part.

I have transcribed it myself, and I think I have it pretty close. Here's what I have:


Oh, Tee Black. Oh Tee Black.
Comment moi j’vas faire pour te voir, mon nègre?

Tu connais j’te l’aime. C’est par rapport à toi.
Comment moi j’vas faire pour te voir, ‘tite fille?
Oh, Tee Black. Oh Tee Black.
Comment moi j’vas faire pour te voir, mon nègre?

Maman a pas de biscuit, et a pas de sirop.
Comment moi j’vas faire pour te voir, mon nègre?
Soleil après se lever, caillette est pas tirèe.

Oh, Tee Black. Oh Tee Black.
Comment moi j’vas faire pour te journée (???), mon nègre?

Oh, Tee Black. Oh Tee Black.
Soleil après se lever, mon nègre



I got some help from my buddy Joe Fontenot. I was stuck on the last couple words of this line:

Maman a pas de biscuit, et a pas de sirop.

Joe clued my in that it was "sirop", and I was like, Duh, of course.

I am still stuck on this line:

Comment moi j’vas faire pour te journée (???), mon nègre?

It really sounds like he's saying "pour te journée", but I am not sure that is correct or that it even makes any sense.

Any ideas, suggestions, critiques of my amateurish transcription attempt?

Thanks,
David

On third verse I hear, "mam a fait des biquits, et y en a pas d'sirop"

On that line you questioned, I hear, "comment moi j'va faire pour le dejeuner, mon neg'"

Looks good otherwise. Nice job.

Thanks! I'm enough of a language geek to appreciate these things, and I want to get them right. There are some I know who content themselves to do it all phonetically and they don't have much of a clue of what any of it means. I simply cannot work that way.

Yes, déjeuner makes WAY more sense.

And no disrespect to Boozoo - he's my hero. But the thing is, he does not always enunciate all that clearly. This is due in part to the lack of some teeth, which leads to mushy consonants.

Boozoo is usually hard for me to understand, but I could hear him pretty clear on here. Not sure how you are on the french, but that line "mam a fait des biquits, et y en a pas d'sirop", means "mom made some biscuits, but there's no syrup". Not sure if "y en a (may be il y en a) is used in standard French today, seems like I heard somewhere it isn't, but it's used a lot in La French. Guess Boozoo can't do breakfast with dry biscuits.

I hear that :

Maman a Fait des biscuits, et n'a pas de sirop.
……………………
……………………
Comment moi j’vas faire pour déjeuner, mon nègre?

Marc

RE: "et n'a pas de sirop". To my knowledge, in Louisiana French, they don't use the "ne ... pas" construction. The "ne" is generally left out. Or so I have been told... I am a mere dilettante.

I've seen it spelled different ways, and there may be some disagreement even among the scholars, but the pronunciation is sometimes "ee on nah pas", sometimes "ee nah pas", and sometimes all you hear is the "nah pas", meaning there is none and I think the different pronunciations are contractions. Cajuns are notorious for removing vowels. Marc would know better than me, but I thought I thought it's "y en a pas", because the only time I hear that "n" sound is when it is referring to an understood subject, which "en" is used as "some". Like in this case, it's understood it's biscuits there's none of. If he actually used biscuits as the article, I'd expect to hear "y a pas des biscuits" (no "n" sound). Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but this is how we usually use it. And you're correct, David, I can't think of a time where the "ne" negative is heard in La French, though there may be exceptions.