<Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Problems playing this file? See media help . </Td> </Tr> <P> The song blends together a variety of musical traditions . The opening line refers to "a banjo on my knee", but the song takes its beat from the polka, which had just reached the U.S. from Europe . Glenn Weiser suggests the song was influenced by an existing work, "Rose of Alabama" (1846), with which it shares some similarities in lyrical theme and musical structure . </P> <P> The first two phrases of the melody are based on the major pentatonic scale . Play (help info) </P> <P> The lyrics are largely nonsense, as characterized by lines such as "It rain'd all night the day I left, The weather it was dry, The sun so hot I froze to death ..." (first verse) and "I shut my eyes to hold my breath ..." (second verse). It is one of the few songs by Foster that use the word "nigger" (others are "Old Uncle Ned" and "Oh! Lemuel", both also among Foster's early works), which appears in the second verse ("De lectric fluid magnified, And killed five hundred nigger ."). </P>

Oh susanna don't you cry for me song