Goober Peas

For the Andy Griffith Show character, see Goober Pyle.

"Goober Peas"
Cover, sheet music, 1866
Song
LanguageEnglish
Published1866
Composer(s)P. Nutt
Lyricist(s)A. Pindar
This article is about the traditional folk song. For the band, see Goober & the Peas.

"Goober Peas" is a traditional folk song probably originating 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 has been recorded and sung by scores of artists, including Burl Ives, Tennessee Ernie Ford and The Kingston Trio.

The lyrics of "Goober Peas" are a 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. Peanuts were also known as pindars and goobers. As peanuts (or ground nuts) are a common food in West and Central Africa, imported Africans provided these names to the U.S.'s vocabulary.

Publication date on the earliest sheet music is 1866, published by A. E. Blackmar in New Orleans. Blackmar humorously lists A. Pindar as the lyricist and P. Nutt as the composer.[1]

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.
Chorus
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 15th Alabama, eating goober peas.
Chorus
(Note: There sat the 15th Alambama, is reported in contemporary accounts

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

Additional verse

The Reverend 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.[2]
  • In M*A*S*H Season 6 Episode 12 "Comrades in Arms", Hawkeye can be heard singing the chorus to himself and explaining to Margaret that it was "an old Civil War marching song".
  • In Veep Season 3 Episode 3 "Alecia", Mike is made to kneel and sing Goober Peas by Jonah in order to not publish a compromising story.[3]
  • In the Parks and Recreation 5th season episode "Article Two", Garth (Patton Oswalt) can be heard singing the chorus.

References
  1. Pindar, "Goober Peas".
  2. Dunaway, Reminiscences of a Rebel, p. 190.
  3. Martin, Denise. "Veep's Timothy Simons on Jonah's Near Victory, 'Goober Peas,' and Letterman-Induced Stress Dreams". Vulture. Retrieved 24 April 2019.

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).
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