From pancocojams:
LYRICS WITH TEXT COMMENTS: ROSIE
(Recording of prisoners at Mississippi State Penitentiary's Parchman work camp, in 1947. Recorded by song collector/archivist Alan Lomax)
A stomp starts the song. The lead singer starts with a call, and the group/other workers respond with the second half of the phrase.
Lead Singer's Call: "Be my woman, gal, I'll-"
Group Response: " -be your man." (Ends like a melodic question.)
Repeat of the call and response. Ends with a resolution to the melodic question.
Second two-phrase unit begins, with the pattern continuing: Stomp-call, stomp-response.
Call: "Every Sunday's dollar-"
Response: "-in your hand."
Call: "In your hand, Lordy-"
Response: "-in your hand."
Call: "Every Sundays dollar-"
Response: "-in your hand."
Call: "Stick to the promise, gal, that-"
Response: "-you made me." This is sung three times, like the song's first line.
Call: "Wasn't gonna marry 'til-uh-"
Response: "-I go free."
Call: "I go free, lordy-"
Response: "I go free."
Call: "Wasn't gonna marry 'til-uh-"
Response: "-I go free."
Call: "Well, Rosie-" Notice how the melody is similar but adjusted to the new words; ornaments inflect the text.
Call: "-oh, lord, gal." A similarity in the polyvocal responses with slight variations. The vocal intensity changes with each statement, especially with the lead singer
Call: "Ah, Rosie-"
Response: "-oh, lord, gal."
Each of the next two call-and-response lines repeat twice; the two-phrase melodic units continue.
Call: "When she walks she reels and-"
Response: "-rocks behind."
Call: "Ain't that enough to worry-"
Response: "-[a] convict's mind."
A repeat of the "Well, Rosie/Ah, Rosie" lines from 1:17. There are few syllables here, so the lead singer can really modify the melody.
A repeat of the first four lines of the song: "Be my woman, gal, I'll be your man (three times)/Every Sunday's dollar in your hand."
"Well, Rosie/Ah, Rosie" lines return for the third time.
[Hold on gal]*
Fade out.
End.
Source of lyrics: pancocojams
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