Davy Crockett Song Survived The Alamo

Mythic Figure Wrote Fine Beer Drinking Ballad Before the Onslaught

Davy Crockett's fiddle on display at the Texas! The Exhibition in
Houston's Herman Park in June, 2011.

By Maude P. Crews for CPW News Service

     Many Americans know that Davy Crockett looked like the actor Fess Parker or Billy Bob Thorton and that he patched the crack in the Liberty Bell and was “king of the wild frontier,” but not many know that the Tennessean was a fine folk musician.

     Jimmy George Lomax, an expert in Texas folk music says “people don’t often know that Davy Crocket was a fine fiddle player.  They want to know if Billy Bob Thorton’s version of the Alamo hero is accurate and if Crockett really stood on the Alamo wall while playing a fiddle before the historic battle.  Indeed, the fiddle playing part is true,” said Lomax.

     Lomax’s father purchased a song in 1948 that was reportedly written by Davy Crockett and smuggled out of the Alamo by the same Texian who carried a message to Sam Houston’s army near San Jacinto.  “Dad paid $1,000 for the song in 1948 and he had to sell his tractor and some cows to help come up with the money.   He bought it from Matilda Davis Crockett of Big Thicket, Texas.  The song is titled simply… “I’m Going Back”……

I'm going back to the farmer's daughter.

She knows how to jerk up the weeds.

She knows how to churn the butter.

She knows where to plant the seeds.

I've had enough of those high social circles.

I've had enough of fine china and tea.

I've had enough of them sweet smiling faces.

Cut like a razor and laugh as you bleed.

I left the frontier for the Capital city.

Found me a woman I thought was divine.

We dined on small crumpets and watercress ditties

I reached out to hold her, my face caught her wine.

Her parents said I was not fit for their daughter.

She comes from good breeding and I am so rude.

I said that good breeding takes practice and training.

I'd practice right now, if you think me not crude.

My visit cut short and my mount was still tired

But I high-tailed it home just as fast as I could.

Left the refinements of doilies and corsets

For the sweet farmer's daughter out there in the woods.

I'm going back to the farmer's daughter.

She knows how to jerk up the weeds.

She knows how to churn the butter.

She knows where to plant the seeds.

I'm headin' out, I'm headin' out, I'm headin' out to Texas
I'm headin' out, I'm headin' out, I'm headin' out today.

I'm headin' out, I'm headin' out, I'm headin' out to Texas
I'm headin' out, I'm headin' out, I'm headin' out to stay.
 

      Señora Candelaria Villanueva one of the few Alamo survivors to have confirmed the popularity of the song lived to be 112 years old when she died at the turn of the 19th Century.  Villaneuva had nursed Jim Bowie as he lay on his cot at the time of the storming of the Alamo.  "Davy Crockett would sing that song to Jim Bowie and they would laugh and laugh until Bowie's sides were hurting," said Villanueva through her surprisingly articulate English," said Lomax.  "Mr. Bowie was singing the chorus of the song when the Mexican soldiers came through the doors and ran him through with their bayonets, according to Señora Villanueva," said Lomax.