Goober Peas

Template:Infobox Standard "Goober Peas"is a traditional folk song mostly known in the Southern United States. It was popular with Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War, and is still sung frequently in the South to this day. It is frequently covered by pop singer Elton John during live shows, though has yet to appear in any of his studio releases. It has also been sung by Burl Ives, Tennessee Ernie Ford and The Kingston Trio.

The lyrics of "Goober Peas" are a fairly accurate description of daily life during the last few years of the Civil War for Southerners. After being cut off from the rail lines and their farm land, they had little to eat aside from boiled peanuts (or "goober peas") which often served as an emergency ration.

Publication date on the earliest sheet music is 1866, published by A. E. Blackmar in New Orleans. Blackmar, perhaps humorously, lists A. Pindar as the lyricist and P. Nutt as the composer.

Lyrics

Verse 1

Sitting by the roadside on a summer's day

Chatting with my mess-mates, passing time away

Lying in the shadows underneath the trees

Goodness, how delicious, eating goober peas.

Chorus2x

Peas, peas, peas, peas

Eating goober peas

Goodness, how delicious,

Eating goober peas.

Verse 2

When a horse-man passes, the soldiers have a rule

To cry out their loudest, "Mister, here's your mule!"

But another custom, enchanting-er than these

Is wearing out your grinders, eating goober peas.

Chorus

Verse 3

Just before the battle, the General hears a row

He says "The Yanks are coming, I hear their rifles now."

He turns around in wonder, and what d'ya think he sees?

The Georgia Militia, eating goober peas. (Note: In some versions, "The Tennessee Militia" is sung instead.)

Chorus

Verse 4

I think my song has lasted almost long enough.

The subject's interesting, but the rhymes are mighty tough.

I wish the war was over, so free from rags and fleas

We'd kiss our wives and sweethearts, and gobble goober peas.

Chorus

Folk versions

The Reverand Wayland Fuller Dunaway recorded a stanza of the song he heard while imprisoned at the Union prison on Johnson's Island, Ohio, during the latter part of the Civil War. Dunaway had been a captain in Co. I, 40th Virginia Infantry, when captured during the Battle of Falling Waters in July 1863. His stanza:

But now we are in prison and likely long to stay,

The Yankees they are guarding us, no hope to get away;

Our rations they are scanty, 'tis cold enough to freeze,—

I wish I was in Georgia, eating goober peas.

Peas, peas, peas, peas,

Eating goober peas;

I wish I was in Georgia, eating goober peas.

—Stanza of a Prison Song.

Bibliography

• Dunaway, Wayland Fuller. Reminiscences of a Rebel. New York: The Neale Publishing Company (1913).
• Pindar, A., Esq. (w.); Nutt, P., Esq. (m.). "Goober Peas" (sheet music). New Orleans : A.E. Blackmar (1866).